Nain's airstrip is failing, and pressure is mounting for the province to help
Some aspects of the Saturday night in Nain that changed Jeff Lyall's life are a little hazy.
Thirty-odd years ago, in the 1980s, Lyall was a teen, spending the evening exercising his dog. Lyall lay on his stomach aboard his qamutik, and let the dog pull him along.
A snowmobile struck him, in an area that locals call the old dam.
"The first couple nights I was touch and go, I had a closed head injury. And I had lost one eye completely, and I've been permanently left blind from the accident," Lyall said.
He can't quite recall when he was airlifted out of Nain for the start of his long recovery in St. John's, but he knows for certain it wasn't that night. Nain is the northernmost community in Newfoundland and Labrador, reachable in winter only by air — but its airstrip has no lights, meaning no airplane can land or take off after dark.
While Lyall is grateful he pulled through, he still wonders what would've been if he had been able to get out of the community faster, and why the airstrip has never been upgraded in the decades since.
"It may or may not have made a difference, I don't know. But you'd think by now that the situation could be, or should be, better," he said.
Community frustration
Lyall's sentiments are shared by government leaders, who have watched the airstrip — itself little more than a gravel runway on the ocean's edge — erode over the years.
"It's not in good shape. It's been repaired now this past summer, but it's there just like a bandage fix. It's not going to last," said Julius Dicker, Nain's angajukKak.
WATCH: This video shows the challenges that pilots face in landing on Nain's airstrip:
Dicker's concerns go far further than the recent patch job. There has been pressure for years to find a better airstrip solution, with the Nunatsiavut government — which has its administrative headquarters in Nain — partnering with ACOA to each chip in funds for a pre-feasibility study on what needed to happen.
According to First Minister Tyler Edmunds, that study was finalized this spring, and found the current airstrip was a write-off. It did, however, identify a potential site to develop about seven kilometres southwest of Nain.
Please stop playing political games with the lives of our people here in Nain. - Julius Dicker
The next step toward a new airstrip is a feasibility study, with a $6.5 million price tag. Edmunds said the federal government is on board for its portion, but the province needs to sign off for its slice of the cost-sharing to make the study happen.
That signoff isn't happening, to Edmunds' and others' consternation.
"It's is a file that has been really I think frustrating for a lot of us, the lack of progress on it and the sometimes opposition we've been seeing, and the reluctance from the provincial government to really advance this file," he told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning.
'Mind-boggling' back-and-forth
The province believes the airstrip is the federal government's domain, said Edmunds, with the federal government then pointing a finger back at the province.
"That back-and-forth was really mind-boggling," said Edmunds. "I think it's very clear that the province has a responsibility here."
The Department of Transportation and Works' website says it owns the Nain airstrip, one of 12 such airstrips it operates in Labrador. It collects landing fees on the airstrips, and receives money from its federal counterpart, Transport Canada, to maintain them.
But when pressed on the matter in the House of Assembly on Oct. 29, Transportation Minister Derrick Bragg said the federal government built the airstrip in the first place and fixing it is on them.
"Any major improvements there will require the input and the funding from the federal government," Bragg said. He did not answer PC MHA Lela Evans's question on committing to a feasibility study.
The federal government has been in meetings with its Nunatsiavut counterpart, to identify the best ways to apply for federal funding, said Labrador MP Yvonne Jones, but no matter what's decided upon, "there will have to be a cost-shared partner," she said.
"That partner could be the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, it could be the Nunatsiavut Government, or it could be someone else, but that's the state we're at right now."
Airstrip a top priority
Both Edmund and Dicker say it's past time for the provincial government to step up to ensure the safety, and the future, for the community of 1,100.
"Please stop playing political games with the lives of our people here in Nain," said Dicker.
"I'm at a loss for words," said Edmunds.
"I know the province can really play the numbers game, but we can't forget about basic decency and basic services.Everyone in our province has a right to live with decency. We're Inuit and we're members of this province."
The airstrip is a top infrastructure priority for the Nunasiavut government, he said.
If the feasibility study funding falls into place, the feasibility study would take about two years to complete, according to MP Jones.
