In an Envision Edmonton commercial, the young woman looks into the camera and says: "If this airport weren't here, I don't know if I'd be alive today."
She was five when an air ambulance whisked her from her hometown to the City Centre Airport, a trip she says saved her life. Now she is volunteering for the campaign to stop council from closing the downtown airport.
As campaign organizers make their final push to gather the last of the 78,000 signatures they need to force a plebiscite on the future of the airport, the debate is fevered and no issue is more compelling than the need to get critical patients to hospital fast.
But the facts are complex and in dispute.
Envision Edmonton says 400 critically ill patients are transported from the downtown airport to city hospitals every year, and the additional time it will take to bring them from Edmonton International Airport will cost lives.
"Closing the instrument landing runway at the City Centre Airport will restrict access to our health services and create a delay of 25 to 30 minutes, even in good weather, and much longer in bad weather," Envision board member Dr. Joseph Fernando writes in a two-page position paper. "Delaying urgent medevac flights can cost lives."
Government agencies and ground ambulance service providers say half as many critically ill and injured people are flown into the downtown airport each year as Envision says, and taking them to the International Airport could, under one scenario, save time.
A 2009 independent consultant's report submitted to the city says statistics collected by ground ambulance drivers who transport patients from the International Airport estimate travel times will increase between two and 36 minutes, depending on the destination. The consultant reported the time could decrease up to six minutes if a helicopter is used to take patients to the U of A hospital.
For example, travel time from the downtown airport to the Royal Alexandra Hospital now averages nine minutes, Edmonton EMS says.
If the downtown airport closes, patients travelling from the International Airport will be on the road for up to 45 minutes, the report says. The net increase in travel time is 36 minutes.
If the patient arrives at the Royal Alex from the International Airport by helicopter, the same trip will take 13 minutes, a four-minute increase.
Similarly, travel time by ambulance from the downtown airport to the University Hospital averages 18 minutes.
If the downtown airport closes, patients transported from the International Airport will be on the road 20 to 27 minutes, depending on whether lights and sirens are used, an increase of two to nine minutes.
If a helicopter is used from the International Airport to the University Hospital, the trip will take 12 minutes, a six-minute decrease.
Sheila Rougeau, spokeswoman for EMS Alberta Health Services, said the province is working on plans to develop an integrated air ambulance facility at the International Airport.
"We do have contingency plans in place so that if a decision is made to close the municipal airport that we mitigate any risk to the patient," she said.
The facility would become a rendezvous point for ground ambulances, fixed-wing airplanes and helicopters.
Last year, Alberta Health Services recorded almost 5,500 patients transferred by air ambulance, Rougeau said. Slightly more than 3,000 were transferred to Edmonton hospitals through the downtown airport. The vast majority were making planned trips to undergo diagnostic procedures or receive treatment not available in their own communities.
Rougeau said 213 faced life-threatening illness or injury -- cases in which travel time to a hospital may have contributed to the outcome.
By contrast, Alberta's charitable non-profit Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society flew slightly more than 1,350 missions in 2009, bringing patients from rural hospitals to major centres.
A spokesman for Envision Edmonton could not be reached for comment.
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