Rob: It's Take Five, another edition of Take Five, featuring Moose Jaws’ City Manager Maryse Carmichael on Discover Moose Jaw dot com and we're going to start off with aviation, which is right up your alley. Of course, aviation has a significant place in Moose Jaw’s history and our future, the Royal Canadian Air Force commemorating the anniversary of 100 years just recently, and the committee will have other celebrations planned throughout the year. Also, the Moose Jaw Municipal Airport presenting their strategic plan to City Council just recently. They continue to expand their operations and a major expansion of 15 Wing to accommodate the future aircrew training program is insight.
Now this announcement, Maryse, was made last summer by the federal government through the Future Air Crew Training program, which will be known as FACT. The Government of Canada taking steps to renew its existing air crew training services to the RCAF. Right now we have the NATO flight training in Canada program in Moose Jaw and they operate in conjunction with CAE. How are things going to change at 15 Wing and what will the expansion mean for 15 Wing and the City of Moose Jaw?
Maryse: Yes. So as you mentioned, there'll be a new contract coming on the base. And it's funny because just in the last few days on social media, I saw actually people were asking about some changes that just recently happened on the base where one of the fleet of aircraft, the Hawk aircraft was retired. So that means there's a change here in Moose Jaw and some people are concerned that, ooh, Moose Jaw is losing pilot training, but it's quite the opposite, actually. So there's a follow on contract to the one that people know well here in Moose Jaw, the NFTC contract Government of Canada as you mentioned did announce their preferred better last summer. They're about to, we think in the next few weeks, fully award the contract and you know what does this mean for Moose Javians? What does this mean for the city? It means that we are assured of having pilot training here in Moose Jaw for the next 20-25 years. So that's a great news because it is not only continuing what we have now, but also expanding. It's exciting, especially for the Air Force as well as you just mentioned, the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force, a significant milestone for the Air Force on April 1st. To be 100 years old and to see that now they are here to stay in Moose Jaw. So that's really great news for us.
Rob: Yeah, great for the city. I mean, the economic impact of having 15 Wing Moose Jaw is huge.
Maryse: That's right. That's right. And it has side effects as well as you also mentioned, we had Mr. Greg Simpson, the Chair of the Moose Jaw Municipal Airport Authority, came and presented a strategic plan for the Municipal Airport. Which of course, because it is an aviation community, it's strong with the military, but also in the civilian side and there are some benefits locally to having 15 Wing here.
Rob: Yeah. Going back in 20- 25 years, the Moose Jaw Municipal Airport has been a constant topic of conversation and a lot of people that are involved in aviation and a lot of business people frankly have been calling for expansion out of that Moose Jaw Municipal Airport and Mr. Greg Simpson kind of took the bull by the horns and he's been making things happen. For the past few years, with the help of others, so expansion has started and is continuing. What can you tell about that?
Maryse: In the last few years, there was an expansion to the runway. We extended the runway, which now allows more different type of aircrafts to come in to the Municipal Airport, including some military actually it was too short before for some military aircraft and it's not anymore. So you know when you look at aviation worldwide, it has been growing steadily over the last few decades and we need to take advantage of that as well in Moose Jaw because the bigger centers like Regina and Saskatoon, the airports are growing as well. Therefore there's some extra traffic that more than likely can come to Moose Jaw and it's also another way the Municipal Airport to support 15 Wing as required if they need it.
Rob: Speaking of aviation, we just commemorated the 70th anniversary of the air disaster over the city of Moose Jaw, where a passenger plane crashed with a military aircraft and many people lost their lives. And there are still many people around Moose Jaw who remember that day quite vividly, even though it was 70 years ago. And we know now that the Canadian Forces Snowbirds do take over that airspace from time to time,above the Moose Jaw Municipal Airport. Obviously safety concerns were taken into consideration before that even happened, right?
Maryse: Absolutely. And as you mentioned, yes, so we just had the commemoration of the 70th anniversary, and I had a chance to go and see and meet with the family of one of the deceased. It is really quite important for the community to gather and to commemorate and to remember this incident. For me as a City Manager, what does that make me think? It makes me think of emergency measures, being prepared in the event of an incident like this. We of course don't want to see something of that magnitude, but we have to be ready just in case. As you mentioned, of course, with the Snowbirds practicing over the Moose Jaw Municipal Airport, it is something that we take into consideration the measures with with Transport Canada with airport security in the city and 15 Wing are all taken into account.
Rob: You mentioned emergency preparedness. In fact, the Emergency Preparedness Week is coming up May 5th through 11th. How will the City of Moose job be participating and what will you be doing with thta?
Maryse: We'll have our fire department, of course, be part of this. We have training on a regular basis with the city administration, of course, to be ready to react should there be something. And of course, liaisons with the Moose Jaw Police Service. So it is again something that we don't want to have to put into effect the full emergency measures, but we have to be ready.
Rob: This is Take Five with Carnie and Carmichael. Maryse Carmichael, Moose Jaw City Manager, joining us on Discover Moose Jaw dot com. One more question about aviation and we know on special occasions the Snowbirds will do a fly pass right down Main Street and it's just rocks our world and it's awesome, makes us proud to be Canadians and proud to have 15 Wing and the Royal Canadian Air Force in our community. And from time to time too, we see the trainer aircraft. You said the Hawk has now been retired, but we still see the Harvard Two up in the air from time to time you can hear them buzzing around the city, but they tell me they're not actually over the city. They're around on the outskirts, correct.
Maryse: So normally they will stay above 5000 feet over the city or they'll be around the city. Now the Mayor has given special permission to the Snowbirds to fly over the city as required and as it works in their schedule. So when we have Harvard Two, then it's a special request that's typically made. So you're totally correct on a normal basis. There are either above 5000 feet or around the city and then with special permission, they can be over downtown.
Rob: OK, very good.