{"id":110113,"date":"2026-10-30T14:15:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=110113"},"modified":"2026-10-30T14:15:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:15:38","slug":"chiefs-advocate-for-improvements-to-northern-ontario-airports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/30\/chiefs-advocate-for-improvements-to-northern-ontario-airports\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs advocate for improvements to northern Ontario airports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0By Sam Laskaris, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com First Nations leaders from across Ontario held a news conference on Oct. 28 to call on the provincial and federal governments to provide funding for an airport infrastructure crisis. The Chiefs of Ontario (COO) and Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) held their event at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel. There are 29 remote airports in northern Ontario and 27 of those directly service First Nations. \u201cMany of them were built 40 years ago or 50 years ago,\u201d said NAN Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler. \u201cOver the course of their lifetime there\u2019s been very little or no effort made to improve those airports. And here we are in 2026 to give notice again to Ontario and Canada that we need resources to improve the safety&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F10%2F30%2Fchiefs-advocate-for-improvements-to-northern-ontario-airports%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0By Sam Laskaris, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com First Nations leaders from across Ontario held a news conference on Oct. 28 to call on the provincial and federal governments to provide funding for an airport infrastructure crisis. The Chiefs of Ontario (COO) and Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) held their event at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel. There are 29 remote airports in northern Ontario and 27 of those directly service First Nations. \u201cMany of them were built 40 years ago or 50 years ago,\u201d said NAN Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler. \u201cOver the course of their lifetime there\u2019s been very little or no effort made to improve those airports. And here we are in 2026 to give notice again to Ontario and Canada that we need resources to improve the safety... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F10%2F30%2Fchiefs-advocate-for-improvements-to-northern-ontario-airports%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chiefs advocate for improvements to northern Ontario airports - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/30\/chiefs-advocate-for-improvements-to-northern-ontario-airports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chiefs advocate for improvements to northern Ontario airports - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0By Sam Laskaris, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com First Nations leaders from across Ontario held a news conference on Oct. 28 to call on the provincial and federal governments to provide funding for an airport infrastructure crisis. The Chiefs of Ontario (COO) and Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) held their event at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel. There are 29 remote airports in northern Ontario and 27 of those directly service First Nations. \u201cMany of them were built 40 years ago or 50 years ago,\u201d said NAN Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler. \u201cOver the course of their lifetime there\u2019s been very little or no effort made to improve those airports. And here we are in 2026 to give notice again to Ontario and Canada that we need resources to improve the safety\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/30\/chiefs-advocate-for-improvements-to-northern-ontario-airports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-30T18:15:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/chiefs-advocate-for-improvements-to-northern-ontario-airports\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/chiefs-advocate-for-improvements-to-northern-ontario-airports\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Chiefs advocate for improvements to northern Ontario airports\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-30T18:15:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/chiefs-advocate-for-improvements-to-northern-ontario-airports\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1013,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/chiefs-advocate-for-improvements-to-northern-ontario-airports\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/chiefs-advocate-for-improvements-to-northern-ontario-airports\\\/\",\"name\":\"Chiefs advocate for improvements to northern Ontario airports - 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