“The gravel runways across Canada are the interstate highway system delivering all the goods and services and medical care,” says Robert Vitale, CEO of Midwest Industrial Supply.“There are no roads servicing these communities, so they need strong, durable runways to bring cargo in, bring passengers in and out, and for medevac operations.” His Ohio-based company has spent four decades developing specialized chemical solutions that transform loose gravel into surfaces capable of supporting everything from small prop planes to Boeing 737s equipped with gravel kits. The stakes are enormous. When runways fail, communities lose their only connection to hospitals, grocery supplies, and the outside world. Yet these critical pieces of infrastructure face mounting pressures. Climate change is thawing the permafrost beneath runways, creating instability that threatens $276 billion in Arctic infrastructure by midcentury. Meanwhile, aircraft manufacturers have stopped producing gravel-capable jets, forcing northern operators to retire their aging fleets. Canadian North retired its last gravel-ready 737-200 this year after 43 years of service, marking the end of an era for purpose-built Arctic aviation. HOW CANADA’S REMOTE RUNWAYS GET BUILT AND MAINTAINED Unlike the United States, where the Federal Aviation Administration oversees runway upgrades as a matter of safety, Canada’s northern airports have a complex web of provincial ownership and federal support. “Each provincial government’s transportation and highway group owns and operates the runways,” Vitale explains. “I actually managed the operations of the 28 gravel runways in the province of Ontario,” adds Moe Fenelon, Director of Aviation and Infrastructure at Midwest. The funding challenge becomes acute when major upgrades are needed. Provincial budgets often fall short of the millions required for runway reconstruction, forcing administrators to seek support through Transport Canada’s Airports Capital Assistance Program. Yet accessing these funds requires meeting strict criteria that don’t always align with northern realities. The program mandates year-round scheduled service, a requirement that can exclude seasonal communities. “When they need to do major upgrades and maintenance like resurfacing, it’s a complicated process and very expensive to crush gravel to upgrade runway surfaces,” Fenelon notes. “Our role is to get into a deep understanding of their issues and what kind of outcomes they want when they treat those runways.” He emphasizes the critical distinction between temporary dust control and long-term stabilization. “We need to help them understand 121 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 12, ISSUE 08 MIDWEST INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY, INC.
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