City council committee votes in favour of airport-area development

A City of Winnipeg council committee has voted in favour of allowing the development of land along the airport’s edge, but what will go there remains up in the air.

Multiple sources told the Free Press last week that Calgary-based WestJet Airlines Ltd. is considering the Manitoba capital for a potential aircraft maintenance facility.

Will Rossall, director of real estate and land development for Winnipeg the Airports Authority, told city council’s property and development committee Tuesday a maintenance facility could go on the land slated for development, but was scant on details.

“The WAA can and should be acting as an economic engine for the city,” Rossall said. “There are unique aspects to airport development that can be leveraged by community members and businesses to grow Winnipeg as a whole.”

The committee heard a report on the planned development of the land which stretches along Saskatchewan Avenue from east to west, from the airport’s western boundary, by Wihuri Road, to Sturgeon Road, before extending north. The WAA has offered to front the cost for water mains, sewers and other utilities that would connect the land to city systems for the first time.

Rossall said the WAA had also had “a number of fairly encouraging conversations” within the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. He said the authority was expecting to go public about how the land will be developed by mid-February.

“First of all, the question is, does (the company) need to fly? Does it benefit from being on our land, versus anybody else’s land? Does it benefit the community?” he said.

The development is expected to create 1,400 jobs, $14 million in annual property tax, and over $200 million in GDP impact by 2031, Rossall said.

“This project right now … would lay the groundwork to get all of that moving in the right direction,” he said.

The project seeks to develop about 220 acres of land, Rossall said — 127 acres of which having direct access to runways and taxiways.

The vote will have to pass through the executive policy committee and a wider city council vote. Property and development committee chairperson Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) called the prospect of new industry near the airport “exciting.”

“I think this carries the narrative of this council that Winnipeg is open for business,” Duncan said.

When asked last week about the potential aircraft maintenance facility, WestJet spokesperson Jennifer Booth said: “No decisions have been made and we have no further information to share.”

The proposed development aligns with the Airport Area West Industrial Secondary Plan, which was approved in 2021, and includes 2,500 acres of land.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca