Servant of the North: Sask Government Airways

Much has been written about Saskatchewan’s family of Crown corporations, namely the present day giants of SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy and Saskatchewan Government Insurance. The economic and social impacts these publicly owned entities have on the province are many; their services well documented; and their histories long and colourful. If there is one underlying theme tying them all together it is the fact that they were created during a time of great social and economic upheaval in Saskatchewan; a time of post-war reconstruction led by the province’s first elected social democratic government – the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), known today as the New Democratic Party (NDP).

While these Crowns still exist as industry powerhouses today, many more have come and gone. As a result, less is known about the province’s box factory, trading company, fur and fish marketing boards, and ventures created to explore and enhance mineral development. While all these CCF creations no longer exist, or operate in such a diluted way that they not recognizable as a publicly owned entity, they still in some way deserve attention.

Part of the Sask Fish Board Staff, La Ronge, June 21, 1946. Photo by Everett Baker.

The CCF was a party that ran on a platform of social justice and public enterprise. All citizens, regardless of location, had access to the services and programs the CCF was creating in every corner of the province.[1] The provision of health services was one of those programs.

While provincial governments prior to the election of the CCF in 1944 intervened in public enterprises with varying success, none intervened in commercial aviation.

As this article will show the CCF’s venture into commercial air transport through Saskatchewan Government Airways (SGA) played a prominent role in helping deliver universal health care to people in the far reaches of northern Saskatchewan.

The story of SGA’s involvement in providing health services to people in the North could not be told without first mentioning Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Service (SAS) established in 1946.[2]  The air ambulance service was the first of its kind in North America and is still considered the leader in bringing health care services to the people of this province.  The SAA, operating primarily out of Regina in the early years, serviced southern Saskatchewan. Planes flew to farms to pick up patients in immediate medical distress; delivered physicians and nurses to accident sites quicker than an ambulance could along the many unpaved roads in the province at the time; or, served as the only ambulance during severe storms that made road travel impossible.

Saskatchewan Air Ambulance plane (Cessna 195) and staff, Regina, March 1952. Photo: Government of Saskatchewan.

While southern Saskatchewan seemed well served by the SAA, what about those being promised the same type of service in the far reaches of our North? Could they expect the same care in the same amount of time? Flying out of Regina, the answer was of course no; a second air carrier was the only option.

It is important to remember that during this time, northern Saskatchewan to many in the province (and the country for that matter) was out of sight and out of mind. The community of La Ronge, a well-established town connected by a paved highway today, was considered the far north at the time. Today, we know the province extends north from La Ronge almost as much as it does south to the 49th parallel. These far reaches of the province in the post-war era were only accessible by water in the summer, or overland on frozen ice and portages in the winter. Again, the quickest and most efficient way into the north was by air. Here enters, SGA.

Government of SK Fish Plant at La Ronge, June 22, 1946. Photo by Everett Baker.

SGA’s creation can be largely attributed to the efforts of Premier Douglas’ first Minister of Natural Resources, Joe Phelps, the CCF MLA elected for the Saltcoats Constituency in the 1944 election.[3] Douglas often referred to Phelps as a “steam engine in pants” as he had a penchant for getting the job done even before Cabinet ever approved of the job. Eileen Forrieter’s Master Thesis – Joseph Lee Phelps - An Impulsive Radical - contains a quote of an exchange between Phelps and his Cabinet colleagues about the potential purchase of a privately owned wood mill in Prince Albert. When questioned about whether this purchase was a wise move, Phelps replied “Fellas, it’s already been done.”[4] The creation of this sawmill and numerous others under Phelps’ leadership as Minister of Natural resources began to change the northern landscape and soon set the stage for the CCF entering the sphere of commercial aviation. 

The creation of SGA occurred at a time when the CCF was busy creating many other Crown corporations either from scratch, or acquiring existing companies already providing services in the province. The government, and largely Phelps, used the latter approach when creating SGA by acquiring Prince Albert based, M & C Aviation.  M & C Aviation received its name from the last name initials of its two founding partners - Richmond Mayson and Angus Campbell. Mayson and Campbell had a storied career as commercial aviators in Saskatchewan dating back to the interwar years. It was during this time that Mayson and Campbell, after purchasing a vintage World War I (WWI) aircraft, began to barnstorm and transport freight and passengers throughout Saskatchewan until the outbreak of World War Two (WWII).

Pontoon planes lined up on North Sask. River, Prince Albert, June 21, 1946. M & C Aviation sign visible on top of the small building. Photo by Everett Baker.

At the outset of WWII, Mayson and Campbell became instrumental in assisting the Dominion Government’s British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) in Saskatchewan by operating various elements of the program (i.e. flight instruction, maintenance) at the No. 6 Elementary Flight Training School (EFTS) and Air Observer School (AOS) in Prince Albert.[5]

Phelps knew of M & C Aviation’s record and legacy. He knew that this company, and its staff, knew how to fly in the North and cared about the North as they were one of the few commercial air operators at the time actually based in Saskatchewan. He therefore made it one of his many missions during the summer of 1947 to negotiate with Mayson and Campbell about the government possibly purchasing their airline as part of the CCF’s public enterprise scheme to assist in the government’s development efforts in northern Saskatchewan. Phelps’ hard nose negotiation tactics, the death of Campbell years earlier and the destruction of much of M & C Aviation’s fleet after a Hangar fire during the summer of 1947 expedited the transfer. The result was the creation of the province’s first and only government-owned airline – Saskatchewan Government Airways through Order-in-Council #1200/47 signed August 15, 1947.[6]

When SGA began operations that summer in 1947, management and staff went straight to work. They had a lot of ground to cover and a government eager on delivering services to the people of the North. As such, SGA’s operational plan consisted of a little bit of everything. It flew freight, mail, furs, fish, passengers, prospectors, politicians, conservation officers, nurses and doctors into regions of the province that had rarely ever seen a visitor from the “outside” before.[7]  To maintain some regularity with these services, it soon established scheduled routes and, along those routes, northern communities relied more and more on SGA aircraft to bring in mail, freight, supplies and services.

Within its first year SGA had essentially four routes: a daily flight between Prince Albert and La Ronge; an eastern route to Stanley Mission, Island Falls, Pelican Narrows and Deschambault Lake; a western route to Patuanak, Ile a la Crosse, Buffalo Narrows and La Loche; and a northern route going to Cree Lake, Stony Rapids, Camsell Portage, Wollaston lake and Southend.[8] SGA’s headquarters were in Prince Albert, which by many standards was not physically located in northern Saskatchewan, but at the time was highly regarded as a embarkation point to destinations further north. The headquarters consisted of office space at the airport hangar, space to house the remaining fleet it acquired; and, access to the North Saskatchewan River where a crude rock berm was erected years earlier, which allowed float planes to land on the river during the summer months. Float access was vital at the time as virtually every northern community north of Prince Albert was float access only as none had landing strips.

Float plane on Wollaston Lake, June 21, 1946. Photo by Everett Baker.

From Prince Albert, SGA widened its operational base by establishing a secondary, but in many ways important aviation hub on the shores of Lac La Ronge. It was from La Ronge that many of SGAs smaller aircraft could take off and land on water and do so again at points further north.

Just because the government now had an air service, didn’t mean it was reliable or consistent. This was problematic for what the company called “mercy flights” where SGA aircraft were used to transfer patients to a Red Cross outpost or hospital as soon as possible. The issue wasn’t the aircraft itself, but Mother Nature. The shoulder seasons meant no takeoffs or landings during spring thaw or winter freeze up. Many landings were just not possible during these times.

The fluidity of the schedules and dependence on weather and landing surface conditions meant that only certain types of aircraft could be used for the North.  Northern flying needed planes with immense power for short takeoffs and landings; enough space to haul other passengers and cargo; and enough maneuverability to get in and out of tight spaces that northern landing areas (lakes) often presented the pilot with. By far, the two most famous and most used bush aircraft for mercy, freight and passenger hauls by SGA were the Noorduyen Norseman and the DeHavilland Beaver.[9]

"Fueling pontoon plane the "Good Ship" SAK," Prince Albert, June 21, 1946. Photo by Everett Baker. In 1946, Everett Baker was part of a delegation that toured commercial fishing operations and fish filleting plants in Northern Saskatchewan. Many of this images in this article are from that trip. Baker travelled in this Noorduyen Norseman (CF-SAK). Though CF-SAK itself was unfortunately destroyed in a hangar fire in 1947, it is similar to those that would be used for SGA "mercy flights."

In addition to mercy flights, this craft delivered smokejumpers (another first in Canada) to northern fires that were inaccessible by land; countless tons of frozen fish to packing plants further south; fur bundles gathered all winter throughout the North by local trappers; mail; groceries; mink and freight.

SGA pilots asked to transport patients on a mercy flight, normally did so without the benefit of medical personnel, medical supplies or supports. The pilot and engineer were usually given crude radio instructions to pick up a person who needed medical attention dockside and bring them to a Red Cross outpost in the far North where they could see a nurse, or to the nearest hospital to see a physician. In the case of the latter, SGA’s destination was always Prince Albert.

Stewart Miller, pilot, La Ronge, June 22, 1946. Photo by Everett Baker.

For SGA pilots, picking up a passenger wasn’t problematic, but as one of the company’s former Managers told The Saturday Evening Post in 1951, picking up a passenger with an acute medical condition was another story.

“We don’t have any posh set up for handling patients up north. Our planes fly regular runs as far as far north as Stony Rapids, Fond du Lac and Goldfields or are hired on a charter basis, but are available at any time for emergency trips. About all we have however are stretchers. No Oxygen masks, no special equipment. When you land and bring them back with you.”[10]

“Emergency Rations Equipment for plane”, La Ronge, June 22, 1946. Photo by Everett Baker.

A great example of the quick, but crude air ambulance service SGA offered is highlighted in the same article where the writer Bill Wolf recalls another flight with SGA pilot Scotty MacLeod when they were re-directed in order to pick up someone in medical distress:

“Last September I was at Stony Rapids with Scotty MacLeod as pilot, and he interrupted our trip to fly to Spreckley Lake in the desolate North West Territories and bring out an injured prospector. The man had cut his hand with an ax [sic]. He was treated by Nurse Myrtle Peirce at the Stony Rapids outpost hospital of the Health Department. In February I was back in Stony Rapids and found Nurse Pierce’s hospital a sanctuary from the fifty-below cold…The only ‘landing fields’ are lakes and rivers and the planes use pontoons or skis depending on the season. Injuries, frozen feet and hands, postnatal complications, and…respiratory diseases account for most of the emergency flights.”[11]

In later years the SGA aircraft were continuously used more and more for mercy flights in the North as the company, and the government of the day, expanded the aircraft fleets reach in the North through the establishment of gravel airstrips in locations like Uranium City, Ile a La Crosse, La Loche and La Ronge. Yet despite the extension of roads in the North well into SGA’s second decade of operations, northern activity still required the services of an air ambulance, just as it did in the southern half of the province. A prime example of this was in 1961 as told in Saskatchewan News:

“A good illustration of nurses coping with emergency situations occurred in Buffalo Narrows this past summer. Two fisherman roused Miss Dubois and Miss Denis (nurses) at 3:30 am. They had been badly burned during an explosion on a large fishing boat on Frobisher Lake 70 miles to the north. Radio circuits were closed for the night. The injured men travelled to Buffalo Narrows by motorboat seeking help for themselves and six other burn victims left behind…Planes from two local airway bases were dispatched to fly Frobisher Lake victims to the Mission hospital at Ile a la Crosse. The fire victims were under doctor’s care by seven am.”[12]

Because of the lack of medical support and expertise, SGA pilots weren’t exactly thrilled about bringing out patients on their own. Northern folklore holds many stories of the pilot being the only one in the aircraft with a patient who clearly needed more medical help than the pilot could offer. More often than not, mercy missions achieved their objective and got the patient quickly to the help they required. However, when that didn’t happen in time, the result was often tragic.[13] The burden, worry and guilt of having an unfortunate medical event happen while they were flying an SGA plane on their own, made pilots leery about picking up northern patients. But, they did it none the less as they knew the nearest nurse, physician or hospital was days away if it were not for them and their aircraft.

“Ice house and tool house, Wollaston Lake”, June 21, 1946. A fishing camp, with Norseman visible in background. Photo by Everett Baker.

What remains of SGA today you ask? The company was privatized in 1965 under Ross Thatcher’s Liberal government. It continued to operate as a private carrier known as NORCANAIR well into the 1980’s.[14]

Some of SGA’s aircraft are still flying. CF-SAN crashed outside of Fort Simpson, North West Territories in 1981.[15] However, like all good northern bush pilots, one man in particular stepped up because he couldn’t let one of his favourite piston pounding aircraft just sit and rot in the bush. Joe McBryan, more commonly known as Buffalo Joe, restored the aircraft and takes it out every summer in Yellowknife. Instead of displaying the royal blue and gold colours of SGA, it now flies under a bright yellow and forest green scheme commonly associated with Buffalo Airways, Joe’s company and the very one made world famous by the Ice Pilots series on the History Channel.

SGA hangars and staff are getting fewer and fewer. The original SGA headquarters and main hangar remained in use at the Prince Albert airport until 2018 when fire destroyed them both. Former staff, managers and pilots are fewer too as time goes on.

For the SAA, you can still catch a glimpse of the program as its original hangar – the Government Hangar – still stands at the Regina International Airport. Owned by the province, but privately leased, the hangar still sits on the original foundation with the same architectural design since its initial construction prior to WWII.

The SAA itself still exists in some capacity even with the addition of the STARS rotary winged fleet. While STARS helicopters service central and southern reaches of the province, the small fixed- wing aircraft of the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance still continue to serve northern reaches of the province just as its counterpart, SGA did over half a century ago.

“Taking leave of the fish filleting staff, Beaver Lake [Denare Beach]”, June 22, 1946. Photo by Everett Baker.

James Winkel is a professional communicator by trade, but an avid outdoor enthusiast with a passion for northern history and more particularly northern Saskatchewan aviation.

His Master’s Thesis – Servant of the North: A History of Saskatchewan Government Airways – chronicles the opportunities and challenges northern pilots and engineers faced in an area of the province largely inaccessible to many during the post-war era.

His love for prairie history and Saskatchewan’s North goes back to family fishing and camping vacations in Saskatchewan’s North in the 1970s and 1980s. James, his wife Heather and two children, Alex and Annalise live in Saskatoon.

“people stories” shares articles from Folklore Magazine, a publication of the Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society. Four issues per year for only $25.00! Click below to learn more about the Magazine or to find out how to get your story into the blog!

Endnotes

[1] The Commonwealth, 31 July 1946, 10.

[2] Don Campbell, Wings of Mercy – A story of the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance, Turner-Warwick Printers, North Battleford, Saskatchewan, 1993, p.15.

[3] Joseph Lee Phelps – An Impulsive Radical. Master’s Thesis, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, 2005.  This article would be incomplete without mentioning Forrieter’s thesis as it too is an important source of prairie history. She and I sat through many classes at the University of Regina together learning about Phelps and the CCF, the programs and passion that administration had to help deliver services to the people of the province and the way in which they did it. I only wish Eileen was around today to see some of her work being used and shared with so many. She would be happy. 

[4] Thomas H. McLeod & Ian McLeod, Tommy Douglas: The Road to Jerusalem (Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1987), 167.

[5] Wings Beyond Road’s End – Airplanes Over Saskatchewan’s North. Saskatchewan Education, Northern Division, Pahkisimon Nuyeah Library System, La Ronge, Saskatchewan, 1992, p. 54.

[6] SAB, Phelps Papers, Box 1, f. 1, Order in Council #1200/47 establishing the Saskatchewan Air Service, 23 July 1947.

[7] Outside was a common expression used by northerners when referring to a place outside of the northern region, typically referring to the southern, more populated half of the province. Also see Art Karras, North to Cree Lake, Fifth House Publishers, Markham, Ontario, 2003.

[8] SGA Annual Report, 1947, 3.

[9] These two aircraft were instrumental for not only opening up the North but for also having ample room for passengers, freight and large doors allowing stretchers and cargo to be loaded and unloaded easily.

[10] The Saturday Evening Post, December 29, 2951, p. 43.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Saskatchewan News, 1961

[13] The Pas Northern Mail. Despondent Indian Jumps to Death From Airplane. 14 September 1934.

[14] Servant of the North - A History of Saskatchewan Government Airways, James Winkel Masters Thesis, University of Regina, 2006, p. 102.

[15] http://www.aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=60704, accessed June 16, 2020.