OLIVER PAIPOONGE, ON — Mayor Lucy Kloosterhuis says she is "excitedly cautious" about the prospect of her rural community someday hosting a hangar and base for airships.
The municipality is in the early stages of examining its feasibility along with a Winnipeg-based firm.
An airship is a helium-filled winged structure that's capable of carrying far heavier loads than an airplane. According to ISO Polar Airships, a non-profit organization trying to promote the use of airships in northern Canada, airship activity around the world is expanding because of the need to find more efficient ways to carry cargo to remote areas.
Oliver Paipoonge council last week received a preliminary report on the idea which was prepared with funding from the provincial Northern Communities Investment Readiness Initiative.
The next step it to apply for federal funding to do a more detailed examination.
Kloosterhuis told Tbnewswatch this isn't the first time the idea of an airship hangar and logistic base in Oliver Paipoonge has been raised.
It first came up, she said, several years ago, but after nothing further developed "I kind of thought, oh ok, this died. You know, everybody has good ideas. It's gone."
Kloosterhuis said "this time they did do a study that shows it would be feasible to put an airship hangar in Oliver Paipoonge because it's in a central part of Canada," and close to air, rail and marine facilities.
"You know these people are working very hard to make it happen, but I don't know if it ever will," she cautioned. "I was excited when I heard about this four years ago. I was thinking of all the different ways that this would benefit the whole area."
Kloosterhuis noted that the discussions have not progressed as yet to the point that any particular properties have been identified for building the airship base, which would be rented to an airship operator.
The private-sector company, she said is "coming to us and asking 'Do you think it would be a good thing?' and we're all saying 'Yes, go for it'. We think it's a wonderful idea."
According to Oliver Paipoonge CAO Wayne Hanchard, DUMA Engineering undertook the recent exploratory study and reviewed it with council.
The next step, Hanchard said, is to determine "if there is any commercial interest in this thing. There are different companies looking at airships, but it's all on paper right now. Certainly there is some thought that this industry may become a going concern."
If a market validation study shows a hangar would attract a tenant, that could then lead to an application for funding to build the facility.
Hanchard said "We're kind of sharpening the pencil now, and working on the application" for the market study,
