Yellowknife, N.W.T. - Northern Aviation Safety was the reason for NDP transport critic Olivia Chow and Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington's conference today in Yellowknife.

Chow was in the capital to stress the improvement of Northern land strips, getting more aviation inspectors, and new terrain awareness systems, or TAWS.

Chow said the government was advised 16 years ago to install the TAWS system and if they had, then lives could have been saved.

"Lives were lost because of it. And we mourn the tragic deaths of people, especially in the North, that have had a lot of accidents in the past. And some of those accidents are preventable."

Chow also said the installation of a permanent search and rescue base is vital for the North.

"Having search and rescue coming from Trenton is not good enough. It takes too long. Having the Coast Guard on site, so it's really several things."

Bevington said the current infrastructure for small airports was great 20 years ago but now it needs to be updated.

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