Mary Tulle, the former CEO of Destination Cape Breton and a tourism consultant, recently wrote an op-ed in the Cape Breton Post.

Bemoaning the fact that many of the conversations that Cape Bretoners have been having about a possible "Cape Breton Airport" have not been based on facts, Ms. Tulle offers her readers a way out of this mist of muddled moaning by presenting the deliquent facts. 

At long last. 

I was eager to read the article as I had yet to hear a coherent argument supporting the public funding of said airport.

But Ms. Tulle did not come through with the promised facts, or at least facts that she supports with research and data.

Let's have a brief look. 

1. “Visitors, especially those travelling from outside of Canada value convenience above all else when planning their vacations.”

This may be so, but how does Ms. Tulle know that it is? She does not tell us, so how are we to judge the issue?

Business Travel News has reported that 5,500 business travellers value “…convenient travel times and hotel locations.”

But this article in Vox describes the kind of travel that millenials are looking for this way: “It’s about emotional and physical health and wellness; it’s about exclusivity; it’s about having experiences off the beaten path. Welcome to ‘transformative travel,’ where a trip is the only thing standing between you and Your New Self.”

Travellers do not, and I realize that Ms. Tulle is an expert,  all want the same thing. Does the ecotourist who would surely be intrigued by Cape Breton Island value convenience above all?

We need more information. 

2. “If they (tourists/golfers) have to land in Halifax and drive at least three hours to reach western Cape Breton, many of them won’t come at all.”

Again, where is the research that backs up this statement?

Golf Advisor tells its readers that the golfing at western Cape Breton is well worth the trip:

 “Private aircraft can access the island via Port Hawkeskbury, which is 50 miles to Cabot Links (you can book an 11-passenger Mercedes Sprinter directly through the resort). There is no real cheat code to get to even more remote Highlands Links in Ingonish at Cape Breton Highlands National Park, but the three-hour journey by car on the Cabot Trail is one of North America's best scenic drives, so enjoy it.

Courses: Cabot Links, Cabot Cliffs, Cape Breton Highlands Golf Course.

Canada's first links golf destination, Cabot Links is quite similar to Bandon Dunes in that it's about a four-hour drive from the largest international airport, Halifax, while there are smaller and private options a little closer in. What awaits at the end of the scenic journey, however, is unquestionably worth it.”

3. “There is an argument to build up the Port Hawkesbury airport for commercial service. We must ask ourselves: Why hasn’t this happened thus far? The answer is simple; it’s because the demand is not there.”

Huh.  There is a demand for a commerical airport in Inverness, but not in Port Hawkesbury?

The target customer for this new airport is a tad particular. I imagine a person just about to book their trip to beautiful western Cape Breton and then, noting the 1-hour drive from the airport to Cabot Links, says something like: "There is no way I will drive, or be driven, for an hour, so that I can play golf in one of the best courses in North America. No bleeping way."

And if said target tourist balks at flying into Port Hawkesbury, or Sydney, it is difficult imagining this same person heading to Meat Cove to spend a splendid night camping near a majestic cliff or  to Cheticamp to take in Douglas Campbell playing the fiddle or to Black Rock Beach to play in the waves or to Louisbourg to look for ghosts (they are offering this now). 

Is this the kind of tourist that Cape Breton should be targetting? 

Also, it is a normal thing to have to make an effort to get to a remote golf resort: Golf Advisor reports that it is not usual to easily zoom into popular remote golf course in America: “Getting to America's most remote golf destinations isn't easy. Most require at least two plane rides and an hour or more of driving for those who don't live within striking distance by car.”

4.“This is what a new airport would mean for the area during the first five years of operation: over 600 direct and indirect jobs; nearly 43 million in economic actvity; over 6 million in direct tax revenue to the federal and provincial governments.

600 direct and indirect jobs?

Yay. 

And BuildCapeBreton.ca reveals that these jobs will be “FTE” or full-time employment. 

But what evidence does Ms. Tulle have that these full-time jobs will be created by a seasonal airport? What will these employees be doing in the winter months? 

Actually, just what will they doing? 

Surely existing airports will lose seasonal traffic which I would assume is essential to their staying afloat, though I do not know what losses are predicted as they have not be presented by the proponents of this new airport.

Does the 43 million dollars of economic activity include the building of the airport?

I think that I have written enough to make the point that the public deserves more information about this project.

In closing, I would like to say that asking questions about how public money should be spent - many of us believe that it should be for the puplic good - should be thought of as a normal, even civically minded thing to do. I sometimes hear questioning voices characterized as negative, or jealous or small-minded. 

But asking questions about how public money is spent, in a place where so little of it is, is surely a positive thing. 

I think that people who support using public money to build a new airport in Cape Breton should make their case, in detail,  if there is a solid one to be made. Perhaps Ms. Tulle could write a second op-ed, offering us more information that we could then use to form a considered opinion on the subject?