Courage and Innovation - The Story of the Men and Women Who Created Canada’s Airport Authorities.

Sometimes it’s the people who no one imagines anything of who do the very thing that no one can imagine.

In the 1980’s some courageous and innovative people put into motion a sequence of events that ultimately created the Canadian Airport Authorities. They did the very thing that no one could imagine.

This is the story of those men and women who had the courage and foresight to create an environment where the airport authorities could be birthed, grow and flourish. It is a story of unwavering commitment to do the very best they could so that the public interest could be balanced against private demands. It is more than just history - it is a tale of people, their thoughts, and fears, and wishes, and how they brought about the single biggest change in transportation policy Canada had seen since Confederation.

It is the story of the 21 Canadian Airport Authorities, how they came to be governed and managed, and how they have shown that a locally managed airport can be far more responsive to the needs of its community, and contribute to that community’s economic health to a great extent. More than just a history, the book tells the personal tales of those folk who were intimately involved in the creation of THEIR airport authority.

The book will be of interest not only to aviation historians but also for those seeking to understand the human side of the development of public policy.

There is a substantial chapter on the history of how the airport devolvement policy came into being, and a chapter for each of the 21 Airport Authorities.

There is also a discussion of how things could have been done better, and issues that have arisen since the first authorities were created in 1992.

Includes colour plates and maps of the 21 Airport Authorities, and tables of statistics from 1992 to 2017. 456 pages plus Index and Table of Contents.