Vernon’s demands that outlying communities help pay for the airport aren’t taking flight.There appears to be little interest among some North Okanagan Regional District directors to provide funding towards operations of the city-owned airport.“It used to be a regional function and they told us NORD didn’t have the capability to run it. So they took it over (in the 1990s),” said director Stan Field.“All of a sudden it’s become a red herring and they want NORD to bail them out.”On Monday, council will consider a recommendation from the airport advisory committee that it ask NORD to provide 10 to 20 per cent of the next expenditure of the airport as part of the regional economic development function for 2008.Based on 2007 figures, that could be less than $10,000.Field says he will not entertain the request because he believes the current airport is restricted in size.“If they want to talk about another location in the North Okanagan, I’d be willing to discuss it with them,” he said.That is also the view of director Rick Fairbairn, who says there is too much development around the existing airport and the runway isn’t long enough.“It’s very limited so it can never be upgraded to meet regional needs,” he said.
But city officials stand by the view that the entire regional district should support the facility financially.“The airport is an important economic generator in the North Okanagan,” said Coun. Barry Beardsell.Doug MacAulay, advisory committee chairman, believes there is a role for the regional district to play.“We don’t want to duplicate economic development activities so we’re not doing marketing on our own,” he said.“We want to get the regional district and the economic development people involved in the function.”Beardsell insists that the city provided much-needed direction to the airport when it took over administration of it in the 1990s.“There’s been quite a bit of growth in activity out there. It brought it to a more fully functionable stage,” he said.
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Editorial Oct 21 Morningstar Airport strategy falls flat
Obviously there’s no harm in trying, but the City of Vernon’s attempt to pass airport costs off to surrounding communities stands about as much chance as Canada’s latest no-frills airline. And the primary reason for this is lack of credible impact by the Vernon Airport on the rest of the North Okanagan.Yes some of the businesses located there will employ residents outside of Vernon but most of them likely live within the city itself or in Coldstream. The same goes for all of the firms who provide support services to the aviation sector, so the economic impact is quite limited.It’s also likely that residents of Armstrong, Enderby and Lumby rarely venture to the Vernon airport. If anything, they have more of a relationship with the Kelowna airport, which is a transportation hub for the entire Okanagan Valley.
It’s almost the height of ridiculous for the city to be going cap-in-hand to the North Okanagan Regional District now, when the city actually took over operation of the airport from NORD back in the 1990s.At that time, city officials insisted that they could do a far more superior job of managing the airport and improving its infrastructure than had occurred under the regional district.If anything, it appears like the city is only turning to NORD because the airport continues to be a drain on its financial resources.But instead of looking for a bail-out, perhaps the city should reconsider its own relationship with the airport if the operating losses keep adding up. Is the revenue generated at the airport enough to warrant the ongoing subsidy provided by Vernon taxpayers?In the end, city hall needs to get its own house in order instead of turning to its neighbours for help.
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