Uninvited Guests

October 15, 2011 permalink

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While Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and prime minister Stephen Harper were addressing a crowd of a hundred invited guests, uninvited guest Chad Wells showed up with some questions for Mr McGuinty.

Chad Wells Today (Oct 14 2011) Janet and I attended the Peterborough airport after hearing Harper and McGuinty were there for a celebration. When I yelled out to McGuinty facts about CAS and asked why Ontario was the only province in Canada that has no oversight, McGuinty said nothing and then went inside the building. Why will McGuinty not answer one question from a member of the public when it comes to CAS? Coward!!!

If all of us are together as a team and keep doing this all over Ontario whenever these people step out in the public they will break. They hate us informing the public of their filthy secerts and what they do to Ontario's children. All of the people that just came there to see Harper and McGuinty were shocked beyond beleif when Janet and I told them of the real abuse these people are causing Ontario's children. Everyone took fliers and asked questions!!!

Source: Facebook, Canada Court Watch

The press report below ignored the non-invited guests.

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Premier Dalton McGuinty, left, compares screwdrivers with Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined by completions manager Scott Duncan of Flying Colours Corps on Friday, Oct. 14, 2011 to celebrate their governments' investments in the Peterborough Municipal Airport.

CLIFFORD SKARSTEDT/Peterborough Examiner/QMI Agency

Which end turns the screw? (overheard by fixcas).

Harper, McGuinty celebrate expanded airport

No announcements made

By BRENDAN WEDLEY, Examiner Staff Writer, Updated October 15, 2011

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Dalton McGuinty used the recently upgraded Peterborough Airport as a backdrop to celebrate the wrapping up of the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund and the continued focus on job creation.

"This project is a great example of the investments we've made to create jobs and growth in a time of global economic instability," Harper said of the $28.6-million upgrade of the airport with $14 million coming from the federal and provincial governments.

The prime minister and premier held the event in a hangar near the terminal building. About 100 invited guests attended the event, along with about 25 people from the media.

Peterborough's unemployment rate has been hovering at about 11%, well above the provincial average and the highest of the 33 census metropolitan areas in the country.

With the airport upgrades completed, the city awaits the creation of new jobs and investments from the improvements to the facility.

Flying Colours, the largest tenant at the airport, is planning to add a new hangar to refurbish larger aircraft. The expansion could double the company's local workforce.

Harper mentioned that more than a dozen international aerospace companies have shown interest in the airport.

Duncan Dee, Air Canada's chief operating officer, attended the event and toured the airport.

After the event, Dee told The Examiner that Air Canada is investigating the possibility of establishing passenger service out of Peterborough Airport.

"It's something that we're looking at. It's in a region that has a dynamic economic makeup," Dee said. "We're very impressed with what we saw. We need to conduct a more detailed analysis of the traffic in and out of Peterborough."

The airport could handle Air Canada passenger service; now it's a matter of whether the market could support the service, Dee explained.

"There's potentially some opportunities with the activities undertaken by companies such as GE and others," he said.

Harper arrived at the airport at about 10:15 a.m. on a government Challenger jet, which remained on the apron near the airport terminal throughout the event.

McGuinty commented that a certain element of anxiety pervades homes and lives with the global economic uncertainty, but assured people that Ontario faces the challenge from a position of strength.

"We've got the best schools in the English-speaking world. We have the shortest health care wait times in the country. We're the number one producer of cars in North America. We've got the fastest growing clean energy sector in North America. After California, we're the world's favourite place to invest in North America," he said.

The government will continue to focus on jobs and the economy, McGuinty said.

"We all want to see our communities in Ontario continue to grow and prosper," the premier said.

Harper and McGuinty each spoke for a little more than five minutes at a lectern in the door of the hangar, with small planes parked on the apron in the background.

The audience was filled with local politicians and business people. Mayor Daryl Bennett, Peterborough County Warden J. Murray Jones, representatives from the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Peterborough Area Economic Development Corp., Flying Colours president John Gillespie, local lawyer Jeff Ayotte and former MP Peter Adams were among the invited guests.

The airport project is the largest tax-supported capital project in the city's history.

The 7,000-foot runway, with the 2,000-foot extension, is the longest civilian paved runway between Toronto and Ottawa. The improvements also included the strengthening of the runway to handle heavier aircraft, expanding aprons to handle more aircraft and the creation of industrial lots for aerospace companies at the airport.

Projects funded through the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund must be completed by the end of the month.

Gillespie commented the city needs to continue to pursue getting a commercial designation for the airport to allow commercial customs and immigration to help attract investment to the airport.

Flying Colours is in negotiations with the city for another site at the airport for a 45,000-square-foot facility to handle the larger Bombardier, Boeing and Airbus aircraft for its maintenance and refurbishing business, Gillespie said.

"We'll be adding jobs…. Within five years it will double our workforce to about 350," he said.

Bennett thanked the prime minister and the premier for attending the ceremony to mark the completion of the airport improvements and for the support of their governments.

"Our success as a nation can and should be measured not only on the big stages of the big cities, but in the hard won accomplishments of our smaller communities such as our own," the mayor said.

NOTE: This is believed to be the first time a sitting premier and prime minister were together at an event in Peterborough.

bwedley@peterboroughexaminer.com

Source: Peterborough Examiner