Prince Albert City Council will vote on a nearly $453,000 increase to a proposed airport terminal detailed design package when they meet for Monday’s regular council meeting.
Council members voted 8-1 at the last executive committee meeting to forward the proposal to council for further debate. Mayor Greg Dionne was the lone dissenter.
The increase will bring the total detailed design cost to $1,942,740. Capital Projects Manager Nykol Miller said approving the increase would allow the city to have a tender-ready package the City can put forward if new grant funding becomes available.
“This was taken to the airport committee, and the airport committee has made a recommendation that this administration be authorized to have the architects complete the design and have a shovel ready package for future opportunities or budget opportunities if available,” Miller said during a presentation at the most recent executive committee meeting.
If approved, funding for the increase would come from the Passenger Facility Fee (PFF) Reserve. The reserve currently has a balance of $1.709,669. That number would drop to $1,256,687 if approved.
The new airport terminal design is 70 per cent complete. The extra funds will cover the remaining 30 per cent.
The City of Prince Albert began planning for a new terminal following the completion of the Prince Albert Airport Strategic Master Plan in February 2021
The cost to build the terminal was originally estimated at $6 million in 2020. That number was based on an estimated building size of $13,000 sq. ft., and pre-COVID cost estimates. Given recent inflation, city administration now estimates the terminal will cost around $22 million, according to a building report included in Monday’s council agenda package
The anticipated new terminal design is now 26,102 sq. ft. The existing terminal building is around 5,600 sq. ft.
Miller said the current terminal isn’t big enough to accommodate all the passengers and cargo the airport sees on a daily basis.
“As Prince Albert is Gateway to the North, it is not unusual for a family to have two or three luggage carts of items for their flight going up north,” Miller said during an executive committee meeting on June 19. “This directly impacts the queuing line. In an airport … usually you have one piece of luggage. Imagine when each person has got two or three carts.”
The new terminal will not only have a larger queueing area, it will also have a larger cargo handling and storage area.
The Prince Albert airport traffic declined significantly during COVID, with a 77 per cent drop in year-over-year passengers in April 2020 compared to April 2019. However, the airport fared well compared to its Canadian counterparts. Saskatoon International Airport, for example, lost 98 per cent of its passengers in April 2020.
