On Friday, April 27, 2007 the first meeting of the new CAC Planning and Infrastructure Committee took place, with the aim of mapping the way forward for the work of the Committee. 

The committee agreed that the best way forward was to establish a "laundry list" of issues under both headings of planning and infrastructure, then determine what can be accomplished in 2007.  Issues not addressed in 2007 will become the foundation issues for the 2008 business plan.  Among the issues under planning are:

• The purchase and sale of private land
• Zoning
• Government planning documents
• Geographic Information System Implementation (GIS)
• Stakeholder relationships with the federal government and other agencies such as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), and the ACC National Secretariat
• Capacity issues
• Greening of airport planning
• Emerging technologies
• Bird and wildlife management plans

In the area of infrastructure, committee meeting participants identified the following issues:

• Building practices in the area of environmental construction and energy efficiency
• Best practices for project delivery models, tendering practices, design guidelines and the integration of capital works/installation with operations and maintenance.
• Regulatory requirements
• Communications with national industry associations i.e. Association of Consulting Engineers of Canada, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Construction Association.
• Surety and insurance
• Documents and best practices

The 2007 work plan has two key initiatives, the development of a national template for technical sub-committee terms of reference and the creation of the collaboration panel. 

The collaboration panel will consist of an "open source" meeting of the committee where at which members would present a project and benefit from input from others in attendance. The first collaboration panel will take place in early September.  

There is a movement to collaborate on means to secure the safe movement of people and goods from their point of departure.  Thus is was necessary to take a fresh look at the perimeter clearance concept and perhaps move to a model more in-line with today's thinking, hence the change on the name of the Perimeter Clearance Coalition to the Coordinated Clearance Coalition.

Affiliated with the Canada-American Business Trade Alliance, Jim Facette, president & CEO of the CAC, will sit on the Coordinated Clearance Coalition's Advisory Board.

There has been little progress on the issue of Transportation Security Agency (TSA) rescreening of connecting bags on flights from Canada, but CAC efforts continue.

Since the CAC completed a joint study with the ACI-NA on the costs of the re-screening, the issue has received the some attention within the Transport Security Administration (TSA) offices but still does not register on the U.S. political radar. 

Prior to the Windsor meeting, the CAC also will meet with attending Canadian senators and members of parliament to brief them on the issue.

Since August 10, 2006 the airport world has had to come to grips with new security and facilitation regulations for the carriage of liquids, aerosols and gels - with continued disruption for Canadian airports with U.S.-pre-clearance.

Both the CAC's Air Policy and Facilitation Committee and its Security Committee have been working with Transport Canada to come up with a set of regulations that will result in the resumption duty free sales where the store is located pre-Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and facilitate their carriage through connection points that required passengers to clear pre-board screening.

Due to the ongoing work of a working group of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a world-wide accepted standard is being developed for a tramper-proof clear plastic bag with accompanying secure supply chain measures.  The Secure Tamper-proof Evident Bag (STEB) will permit a passenger to clear pre-board screening and border services without losing his or her purchases. 

The likelihood is that Canada will enter into a mutual recognition agreement with various countries around the world on the bag.  Failing to do would position Canadian airports at a competitive disadvantage.  Transport Canada is in the development stage of the regulations and will consult with the CAC in the weeks ahead.

Amendments to the Aeronautics Act contained in Bill C-6 have the potential to expand the authority of the Minister of Transport to enter and remove obstacles that penetrate airport zones. 

In response to problems raised by a few of our members, the CAC approached the minister about the prospect of having some delegated authority extended to airport authorities in this area, and the CAC received a positive response. 

Historically, for airports with obstacles penetrating the airport zoning, the airport was faced with waiting for the minister to remove the obstacles or displacing the threshold.  For interested airports, there is potential that the airport authority could be delegated the authority to enter onto adjoining land and remove the obstacles on the minister's behalf.  If the C-6 amendments proceed into law, there may also be some ability for the airport to recover the cost of removing the obstacles in a registered zoning scenario. 

The CAC has been asked to explore these issues further with Transport Canada.

Charlottetown Airport Authority has announced that Doug Newson has been named its chief executive officer.

Mr. Newson will assume the position on June 1, 2007. Incumbent CEO, Mike Campbell announced his intention to retire earlier this year.

"We are delighted that Doug has accepted the offer," said CAA Chairman Cliff Campbell. "Doug has the complete skills and experience package that we were seeking. We are confident that Doug will work well and lead the great team of staff members at the Charlottetown Airport Authority to ensure continued progress and growth of passenger services," added Campbell.

An Islander Coming Home

Doug Newson was born and raised in Charlottetown. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), where he obtained a bachelor's degree in business administration. He was active in the PEI sporting community and was named UPEI Male Athlete of the year while playing with the UPEI Panthers basketball team.

Mr. Newson later completed a master's degree in business administration at Dalhousie University. Upon graduation, he began his career in aviation in the Air Canada Jazz marketing department, where he worked as an analyst and a flight revenue controller.

In May 2002, Mr. Newson joined the IMP Group, as director of marketing and sales for CanJet Airlines. In this position he was responsible for pricing, scheduling, revenue management, product development, sales initiatives, new route analysis and route planning. He also was directly responsible for establishing and maintaining relationships with various airports, tour operators, travel agencies and selected airline partners.