Keeping the airport in good repair is important, as it has become a regional hub for the southwest corner of Manitoba. In addition to agricultural aircraft, the airport also sees a lot of transfers for medical patients, as well as STARS and other air ambulances, and covers the whole area from the Saskatchewan border to Killarney to north of Hartney. In fact, the closest airports with a similar runway size are Estevan to the west and Morden to the east, and since higher measures of security have been installed at the US-Canada border, the border patrol helicopter stops at the Deloraine-Winchester Airport daily to refuel. Because of this, the airport has already had to make upgrades to its fuel tank, as well as a different type of nozzle that cost upwards of $1,500.

Ideally, the entire runway, which measures around 4,000 feet long and 75 feet wide would be repaved and smoothed, however, nothing is set in stone yet.

The Airport Commission has hired an experienced consulting firm which has put together a three-phase plan for the refurbishment to present to the government, but the search for funding is still ongoing.

Councillor Kevin Weidenhamer said that the municipality has been meeting with various government departments since November 2024, but it is a slow process.

“There are a lot of hoops to jump through,” he said. “We would like to see more than half of the funding come from the government because as a rural municipality, it’s hard for us to come up with that much money.”

According to Bolduc, a slightly smaller airport outside of Erickson received funding to repave its runway just last year, so he is cautiously optimistic that between government grants and local fundraising they can make it work.

As of press time, no fundraising events for this project are on the books yet, but efforts will begin soon.

by JACQUIE MAYNARD, Recorder staff