Pupatello Touts Potential of Cargo Village

(Windsor Star – Doug Schmidt)

Essex County specialty greenhouse produce picked fresh in the afternoon and placed on store shelves the next morning in Berlin – and “that’s just scratching the surface,” Economic Development and Trade Minister Sandra Pupatello said of the initial promise of developing a “cargo village” at Windsor Airport.

The MPP for Windsor West said the local airport is “ideally situated” to be transformed into a regional air cargo hub, and she announced Friday that Windsor is getting $200,000 to study the proposal in greater detail. Pupatello used a visit to the airport to announce a total of $350,000 in provincial funding for three initiatives designed to bring new jobs and investment to the area.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that we have potential here,” she said in announcing the funding under Ontario’s communities-in-transition program.

Pupatello praised Mayor Eddie Francis for continuing to push the airport initiative. More than $100,000 in additional funding is required to undertake the second phase of a feasibility study begun by Germany’s Lufthansa Consulting, and Francis said he’ll be seeking city council’s support, although he added the funding was already contained in the airport’s most recent capital budget. Read more here.