Efforts to build helipad stall

Richard Froese
South Peace News

A permanent helipad at High Prairie Health Complex remains a top priority for Big Lakes County and STARS air ambulance service.

However, plans to work on a project with Alberta Health Services [AHS] are still up in the air.

At its regular meeting Feb. 24, Big Lakes council discussed the need to speed up the project during an annual presentation by Alberta STARS [Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society].

STARS and local governments continue to urge AHS to work on a plan since the temporary landing site was closed for service one year ago.

“We want to work together with Alberta Health Service to move forward on the project,” says Glenda Farnden, STARS senior municipal relations liaison.

Transport Canada permitted STARS in 2017 to use a temporary landing area at the High Prairie hospital, she told council at its meeting Jan. 8.

Without a helipad at the hospital, STARS is required to land at High Prairie Airport for any inter-facility transfers, says Jon Gogan, STARS provincial director of northern and central operations.

STARS is also working with Transport Canada on the project, says the STARS pilot for 19 years.

“We’re waiting on AHS, who will look into having an engineered assessment on developing a helipad,” says Gogan, when he spoke to council Feb. 24.

“We look forward to let that dialogue continue.”

Council is also patient with AHS.

“We, too, are waiting for a response from AHS about a helipad at the hospital,” Reeve Ken Matthews says.

He and Grouard Councillor Fern Welch were appointed by council at its meeting Aug. 26, 2020 to represent council on an AHS heliport landing committee with other government partners in the region.

Matthews says a meeting was held in September.

“We’re still waiting for AHS to get back to us,” Matthews says.

“They said they were going to get back to us to say what we should do and should not do.

The temporary landing site was closed to STARS access in early 2020, AHS north zone communications director Shelly Willsey says in an e-mail.

“In January 2020, it was determined that AHS could not continue to appropriately secure the area for landings,” Willsey says.

“That site itself likely did not meet the Transport Canada requirements for a space set aside for the purposes of landing an aircraft, which is required at most hospital sites.”

She says the airport is used successfully for both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter transports of patients to higher levels of care.

Helipads at Alberta hospitals are owned by operated by AHS, Farnden says.

A part of the STARS Foundation, she works with communities to raise funds to achieve the build a helipad.

Local governments and STARS have been pushing the project for several years before the new hospital opened in 2017.

The project could range from $200,000 to $500,000, depending on requirements and features, says STARS aviation project manager Jason Arthur, who shared the figures in a STARS presentation to Big Lakes council on Jan. 8, 2020.

Farnden says the Valleyview helipad cost about $200,000 in 2015 and was funded by the Town of Valleyview, the M.D. of Greenview and Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation.

She suggests that business, industry and Indigenous communities be approached for funding and support for the High Prairie helipad.

“It’s vital to bring in community partners,” Farnden says.

BLC has some designated funding that could be used for a permanent helipad, says Heather Nanninga, director of corporate services when the issue was discussed Jan. 8, 2020.

“We have a reserve account called medical equipment reserve to purchase medical equipment, which could include a helipad,” she says.

However, nothing is allocated to a helipad, she says.

Some funds raised at the first two Big Lakes County Invitational Charity Golf Tournaments in 2014 and 2015 were allocated to a future helipad.

No figures are available from the county.