Support for airport petition sought
SYDNEY — Stakeholders who put together a petition regarding the J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport losing all commercial air service indefinitely are rallying the public to sign it this week.
“Any Canadian citizen can sign it and we encourage them to do so,” said Kathleen Yurchesyn, CEO of the Cape Breton Regional Chamber of Commerce, adding they are thankful for the support so far.
“We'd love to see 5,000 more signatures and it's our intention to do another big push to different groups, unions and users of the airport that will have direct concern or stakeholder engagement around the sustainability and for the airport to remain open.”
The petition is asking the federal government to provide financial support to the airline industry so that the national air carriers can then re-establish commercial air service to airports including the airport in Sydney.
The last commercial flight out of Sydney airport was Monday morning.
The petition is open for signatures until Jan. 20 at 12 p.m. It can be accessed at https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/ Sign/e-3057.
A video plea was sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in December.
Yurchesyn said although Cape Breton Regional Municipality Mayor Amanda McDougall has had correspondence with the prime minister's office, they have not received a response to the video.
“We are hopeful we will get a response over the next week or so,” she said.
McDougall said she is aware of the airport's importance.
“We need to make sure people realize how negative this is going to be on our community going forward,” said the mayor.
“We are the only region that is using our voices so strongly across the country and we've heard this from Air Canada itself and elected officials in Ottawa.
“We have just short of two weeks left to get as many signatures as possible (on the petition) and to keep this going,” she said. “This is going to be a game changer not only for our regional airport but for the regional airports across Canada that are feeling the same fear and nervousness around being disconnected with the world that we are.”
Knowing the last flight left the airport on Monday morning was heartbreaking, she added.
“I had hopes that negotiations would have been expedited before today but unfortunately we are where we are. Now it is in our hands to keep this issue top of minds across the country.”
Mike McKinnon, CEO of the Sydney airport, also said there has been positive feedback regarding the video and the petition.
“I think right now so many people are focused on the pandemic and that is certainly understandable, it is top of mind, but at some point, we will need air service back in order for our region to recover and getting service back won't be fast or easy, it is not like turning on a switch and flights will resume,” he said.
MacKinnon described the mood at the airport Monday as somber.