The Vernon Regional Airport Corporation has grounded any short term plans for extending the airport’s runway.Airport president Ian Hawes presented a revised strategic plan to council on Tuesday and said the corporation has changed its focus on attracting more airport-related businesses and creating more jobs.
“We have changed our focus of extending the runway,” he said. “Unless something changes we’re not going to be focusing on that.” Hawes said that the corporation plans to be ready should a business make a case for the need to build a new runway. He said they would consider lengthening the tarmac if a manufacturing or similar business came forward but wouldn’t build a longer runway solely for a new passenger service. “To spend millions of dollars in the hope that that will happen is fairly shortsighted,” he said. But some councilllors did not fully approve of the change in focus. Coun. Pat Cochrane said he is concerned that the new strategy obligates the city to build a longer runway. “This gives the impression that if a business asks for it we would provide a runway,” he said. “This makes it seem as if we’re kind of stuck paying for the runway.” Councillors also raised the issue of regional funding for the airport. Coun. Juliette Cunningham said it doesn’t make sense to have a regional function for tourism and economic development if other members of the North Okanagan Regional District won’t be contributing to the airport. She said that several businesses outside of Vernon use the airport. “If they’re not contributing very much . . . It’s not fair to Vernon taxpayers,” she said. “
No comments:
Post a Comment