Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen says a helipad at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, to accommodate the STARS helicopter, will hopefully be in operation by late fall. The helipad had been scheduled to open this spring but has been delayed. Goertzen toured the facility in late July and explains what is holding things up.

"The helipad itself is completed and has been completed for some time. The challenge is that the building that the helipad rests upon, which is a new building under construction, hasn't been finished. And they aren't able to use the helipad until the building is able to be occupied because, of course, you can land the helicopter but you have to be able to take the patient into the building."

Goertzen says he has been advised the building is now almost finished but must go through a series of inspections.

"Following the tour, I was advised that the building is substantially completed at this time and the City of Winnipeg is going to be doing the testing that they have to do on the building to be able to give it a permit. I'm told that the city will be conducting those tests in the next several weeks and then, hopefully, depending on the outcome of those tests, the helipad could be operational late this fall."

STAR currently lands at the James Richardson International Airport and patients are transported from there to the hospital by ambulance. STARS representatives say the helipad will reduce transport times by about 25 minutes.