Aviation View - Oct 2023

19 AVIATION VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 AI RPORT MANAGEMENT COUNCI L OF ONTARIO economic potential that airports offer communities across the province. The Study of Ontario’s Airports and Aerodromes – commissioned by AMCO, completed by HM Aero Aviation Consulting, and released in June 2022 – details the social and economic values provided by the sector but calls attention to the major challenges that chronically beset airports across the province as well. Federal regulatory changes, municipal financial pressures, decreasing political and public will, and a sluggish recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic all contribute to the difficulties airports experience. The study made a series of recommendations geared to the federal and provincial governments respectively. First, the Government of Ontario should implement a provincial funding program that addresses identified gaps in the federal Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP) through the rehabilitation and reconstruction of existing airside assets and supporting aeronautical infrastructure; the procurement of replacement mobile equipment for maintenance and firefighting; and initiatives to improve energy efficiency and/or decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Financing for such a program could come from the full or partial allocation of the provincial aviation fuel tax and reinvesting the revenues generated through the functioning of Ontario’s aviation sector. A second recommendation calls for the restoration of the Ontario Air Advisory Panel as a conduit to