Much of the legislative sitting last week was devoted to sparring between the official Opposition and Highways and Public Works Minister Richard Mostyn over the government’s tabled Public Airports Act.

Today, the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) released a statement expressing concern about the tabled act, and the consultation process that preceded it.

Last week, Mostyn said the Yukon government met with COPA before tabling the legislation.

The statement contradicted this, and offered a chronology of the email exchange that constituted consultation between assistant deputy minister of transportation Allan Nixon and COPA in July, August and September.

Among the organization’s concerns is that it wasn’t provided the draft legislation when the consultation was initiated, and that when it was finally shown the draft, they only had three weeks to study it and provide feedback before it was tabled.

This statement comes days after a similar letter was penned by Glenn Priestley, the executive director of the Northern Air Transport Association (NATA).

In an interview with the Star Friday, Nixon sought to set the record straight by outlining his detailed version of the consultation process.

The government began its “targeted” consultation in July, according to Nixon. “We wanted to focus on the main players in the local industry, the general aviation community,” he said.

The government had not yet drafted the act that seeks to streamline and make more efficient the heretofore piecemeal legislation that governs the territory’s public aviation infrastructure, according to a press release.

So when Nixon consulted with stakeholders in July and August, he brought with him the legislation the Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) uses to govern its public airports. The Yukon government modeled the Public Airports Act on the N.W.T. act, down to the language used, according to Nixon.

The N.W.T. legislation also includes a rates and fees clause that resembles the one in the Public Airports Act that has prompted uproar in the past week.

However, the N.W.T. has implemented an airport improvement fee by way of this clause, while Mostyn expressed on multiple occasions last week that the Yukon Liberal government has no intention of doing so.

They simply want to transfer already existing rates and fees established by Transport Canada in the 1990s to the new legislation, according to Nixon. Aside from a parking charge increase introduced by the Yukon Party government in 2014, no real changes have been made to the rates and fees since they were devolved to territorial jurisdiction in the 1990s.

On July 25, Nixon met with the Yukon Aviation Advisory Group (YAAG), which is comprised of voluntary representatives from Air North, Alkan Air, COPA, Nav Canada, and the fixed-wing and rotary-wing charter organizations.

He shared with YAAG - an informal industry “sounding board” formed a few years ago, said Nixon - the N.W.T. legislation, and asked members to share any issues or concerns they might have.

He did the same on July 26 in a meeting with Alkan Air, July 27 with Air North, July 31 with Tintina Air, and Aug. 1 with the City of Whitehorse.

Nixon also passed on the same information to COPA via email on July 27, who put together an email list for Nixon with all of the “main players in the territory,” which he used to share information as well.

COPA, however, was not willing to comment on the N.W.T. legislation, a fact confirmed by both Nixon and today’s letter from COPA.

“Members did not​ feel​ comfortable providing an ​opinion on another jurisdiction’s act,​ but instead wanted to review a draft of the Yukon legislation, one size not necessarily being the right fit for all,” the letter reads.

On Aug. 2, Nixon had what he called a “very good conversation” with Priestly. They discussed the N.W.T. act, and the association’s experience dealing with it, according to Nixon.

Reasonable legislation

“From Mr. Priestly’s perspective, he said the legislation in N.W.T. was reasonable. His big complaint and big concern was when they rolled out an airport improvement fee and increased landing fees and the lack of consultation.”

In his letter of protest last week, Priestly said the “telephone call” it received from Nixon cannot be considered “consultation,” as their conversation about the proposed Public Airports Act was general in nature, and did not include any draft legislation to reference.

Nixon countered this by explaining that no one received a copy of the draft legislation before it was completed and released to the COPA mailing list on Sept. 11. Nixon said he believes the mailing list included members of the NATA board, but not the organization itself.

“NATA wasn’t our focus for consultation, we wanted to talk to the local people. Not the ... industry association,” Nixon said.

However, he noted that a suggestion made by Priestly to establish a formal mechanism for industry consultation led to the institutionalization of YAAG in the tabled version of the Public Airports Act.

“Whether Mr. Priestly or NATA realizes it, they actually influenced the final version of our act,” he said.

The government held publicly-advertised open houses on the proposed legislation on Aug. 3 and Aug. 7, according to Nixon. He said COPA members, Air Canada representatives and some charter operators and private pilots showed up for these.

However, COPA said in its letter today that the organization itself did not learn of these open houses until after they occurred.

Nixon also met with Nav Canada and Great River Air on Aug. 8, and the City of Whitehorse for a second time on Aug. 10.

After distributing the draft legislation to the COPA email list on Sept. 11, Nixon said he answered some questions about the act over the next five days.

“We were clear with everybody that we were going to table this legislation in October and that we hoped if they had any serious concerns or issues, they would get back to us.... Until this week, we hadn’t heard any,” Nixon said Friday.

The Yukon Party and COPA have asked the bill to be put on hold until further consultation can be completed.

The mayor of Faro, Jack Bowers, responded to COPA’s letter in an email this morning, expressing that he too wants the government to “take a step back and follow due process.”