First Nation Leaders Demand Airport Upgrades After Two-Week Weather System Outage in Northwest Ontario

A Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) was issued Oct. 22 when the automated weather observation system (AWOS) at the airport in Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI), also known as Big Trout Lake, went out of service. The same system also provides weather information for flights in and out of the remote airports at Wapekeka, Kasabonika Lake and Wunnumin Lake First Nations. The disruption lasted two weeks.

NAV Canada, which manages Canada's civil air navigation, said technicians reached Big Trout Lake Airport on Thursday and the system is back online, with the NOTAM cancelled. Media relations manager Maryam Amini said the system had been temporarily taken out of service for planned maintenance to replace the foundations supporting its sensors. Technicians had tried to restore service on Wednesday but could not land in the community because of inclement weather.

Several flights in remote communities were cancelled during the outage. Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said he was not told about the outage until Wednesday and wrote to federal transportation minister Steven MacKinnon. He said the problem is much bigger than one system, citing aging and outdated technology and infrastructure that, if not fixed, will keep putting communities at risk. NAN also raised concerns about medical evacuations.

An Ornge spokesperson said its services remained available under visual flight rules conditions, but if weather is marginal and conditions cannot be confirmed safe, transports may be delayed until conditions improve. Ornge said a non-functional AWOS limits its ability to respond and that it supports efforts to improve airport infrastructure.

KI Chief Donny Morris said the outage created chaos in the community, particularly for people unable to leave for medical appointments, and gave the federal government's approach a failing grade. Wunnumin Lake First Nation Chief Archie Wabasse said in a Facebook statement that the outage shows the importance of reliable aviation infrastructure, noting communities depend on air transportation for medical emergencies, food, supplies and passenger travel.

A high-level needs assessment conducted by NAN last year found that addressing infrastructure deficiencies across Ontario's 29 remote airports could cost up to $1.5 billion.

The outage follows a recent push by NAN and Chiefs of Ontario for airport improvements after the release of a documentary on the issue last week. Fiddler said he hopes to meet soon with the provincial and federal governments to discuss needed investments and expects commitments on the work required.

Remote fly-in communities run on a thin layer of ground infrastructure. When one weather-observation unit serves several airstrips, a single maintenance job can remove the weather data that operators and medical-transport crews use to decide whether to fly. The Big Trout Lake case illustrates how planned work on one component can degrade access across a cluster of communities at once.

For operators serving this region, the practical consequence is that visual flight rules conditions become the fallback, and marginal weather turns into delay rather than a go decision. That shifts risk onto time-critical flights, which is why medevac providers and community leaders frame the issue as one of safety rather than convenience.

The next milestone is the meeting Fiddler says he hopes to hold with provincial and federal governments, where he expects commitments on the required work. Whether any funding is attached to the $1.5 billion assessment will be the clearest sign of how the gap gets addressed.