Gélinas: rationale for moving OPP helicopter makes no sense

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas said Thursday she finally has a copy of the review looking into the relocation of an OPP search and rescue helicopter from Sudbury to Orillia.

Speaking in the Ontario Legislature on Thursday, Gélinas said the review was supposed to explain the rationale behind moving the helicopter, but it failed on all accounts.

“I’m proud to say that after $30 in fees and months of waiting, I finally received the report,” she said. “The only reasoning in that 30-page report is that there are more people in southern Ontario than in Northern Ontario. Therefore all of the resources should be in southern Ontario.”

Announced in spring 2015, the OPP has said the move will save $254,000 and allow them to expand the operating hours of the force's two helicopters, both of which are now based in Orillia.

However, the decision has been criticized because, among other reasons, the Orillia base is located in a snowbelt and aircraft are frequently grounded in winter due to storms. When that happened in the past, the Sudbury helicopter could still respond to calls in southern Ontario.

And the helicopter is often used to locate people with dementia or stranded in remote locations – both common occurrences in Northern Ontario, where the population is older and the land mass much bigger.
Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault asked for the review, and was supported by Premier Kathleen Wynne. But the helicopter left Greater Sudbury Airport last summer during the Pan Am Games in Toronto and has not returned.

“A lot of people have pointed out that moving both helicopters to Orillia is dangerous because of the effects of bad weather,” Gélinas said in the Legislature. “To address this, the report looked at the weather stations from Borden Airport and Muskoka Airport. Both of these airports are located more than 40 kilometres away from the Orillia base to the north and southwest.

“Both those airports are not like the Orillia base, which is right beside a lake and subject to lake effects. It is also in a snowbelt which means that aircraft based there are often grounded.”

And if population is the guiding principle, Gélinas said it could be used to justifying taking away other services key to northerners.

“According to the government, we should not have a university or a hospital or a cancer treatment centre because, you know what? There are fewer people in Northern Ontario than in southern Ontario,” she said.
“This is the only rationale that they could put forward.

“People in the North reject that decision. I have been copied on resolutions from Charlton and Dack, the Manitoulin Municipal Association, the City of Greater Sudbury, the Town of Hornepayne, la Ville de Mattice-Val Côté and the Township of Billings. They’re all telling the minister the same thing: Bring the OPP helicopter back to Sudbury Airport to protect the lives of northerners.”