The City of Vernon hopes to prove the local airport warrants financial support regionally. Council instructed staff Monday to research whether there would be a benefit to the airport being funded by the North Okanagan Regional District or becoming a regional function. Coun. Patrick Nicol said that before a request is made to NORD, some homework must be done to show that it has an impact on Lumby, Armstrong and other communities. “It benefits the area we serve.”Among the strong advocates to get NORD involved is Coun. Juliette Cunningham. “We keep pumping money into the airport when it should be regional. The outlying communities should be contributing as well,” she said. The airport was controlled by the regional district until the mid-1990s when the city took it over. At the time, the city maintained it could operate the facility better. Coun. Barry Beardsell doesn’t believe history should stand in the way of changes now. “Just because it was with NORD at one time and the city wanted it back doesn’t make the right equation for today,” he said.
Opposition came from Coun. Pat Cochrane, who says the city shouldn’t be putting pressure on NORD over the airport when it can’t decide if it will support the creation of a regional economic development function. “The way we’re treating the regional district, we’re showing tremendous hypocrisy,” said Cochrane. “There’s no common sense. There’s no consistency.”
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