To make the situation safer, hundreds of millions of dollars have to be spent. They could have been spent, as I say, individually by companies going to build their own airports, and we ended up with so many.
We're going to end up with many fewer airports. We're going to end up spending on what we call the poor man's radar—a bunch of towers that can triangulate and see aircraft and that are able to make the situation much safer. By being able to see the aircraft, we're going to be able to increase the number of aircraft processing through there. Finally, we're going to be able to do all this—this is an example of what I'm talking about—with a lot less money than if we had not gotten together and agreed on a systems approach.
The same thing is going to happen with the $11 billion that needs to be spent on the ground infrastructure to have more people living in Fort McMurray and commuting to work every day, instead of the millions who are flying in and out from all over the place.
I'm a member of the Alberta Economic Development Authority. I've been a member for nine years. My term will end next year. This agency has existed for 20 years. It advises the premier every six months.
We have been looking at exactly the kind of thing you've been looking at for some time. The most recent briefing—and it went to the premier, and she liked it—was all about congestion management. Congestion management is another construct that more or less does the same thing as I described with the other example. Using technology in an extensive way, it brings together.... The City of Toronto, for instance, with the massive transportation and congestion issues that it has, probably is already using congestion management, but may not be using it enough.
This study would be very worthwhile for your staff to look at.