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“I got the government’s attention and I said to them, ‘Do you realize I can no longer sign leases with lessors? Do you realize that the market is refusing me a 40-year bond because I don’t have 40 years to the end of my lease?'” said Jim Cherry, chief executive of Aéroports de Montréal.

Cherry was able to secure a 20-year extension to his lease, to 2072, but it came too late to secure the financing and, under existing federal rules, he will not be able to extend it again. “We kicked the can down the road, but we’re going to run into the same thing in 2032,” he said.

Similar problems are looming at big airports across the country because of Canada’s “antiquated” non-profit model.

The solution, according to a recent review of the Canada Transportation Act, is to move towards a fully privatized, for-profit system. Such a move opens up more funding avenues for the airports, but there’s just one little problem: Montreal is the only airport in the country that actually supports the idea.

The big airports support many of the recommendations made by the sweeping review led by former federal minister David Emerson, such as a much-needed overhaul of security screening protocols.

But the proposal that they move “within three years to a share-capital structure … with equity-based financing from large institutional investors” is proving to be unexpectedly controversial.

We need to get world-class infrastructure at the price the rest of the world is paying for it

“Until recently, several large airports were in favour of full privatization. However, during the review’s consultations, only one provided a submission that was favourable to this option,” said Emerson’s report, released in February.