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Council creates airport corporation and seeks grants

DISTRICT OF SECHELT
Airport sign
Sechelt Coun. Chris Moore, left, and Mayor John Henderson unveil the new Sunshine Coast Regional Airport sign at the District’s Airport open house earlier this month.

The District of Sechelt has sent draft articles of incorporation to the inspector of municipalities to start a new Sunshine Coast Regional Airport (SCRA) corporation that could potentially borrow more than $5 million to get the proposed airport expansion built.

The articles of incorporation were put together in closed meetings and then released to the public during the Oct. 22 regular meeting of council.

The documents list things such as the borrowing powers of the new corporation, the issuing of shares, votes of shareholders and payments of dividends.

Council also accepted an InterVistas Business Case for Airfield Renewal report at their Oct. 22 meeting, which spoke to the validity of expanding the Coast’s only airport at the top of Field Road.

“The updated business plan forms part of a business case package to secure funding for the expansion of the runway and redevelopment of related amenities at the airport,” chief financial officer Victor Mema wrote in his report to council.

The plan shows the Sunshine Coast could support twice daily air service, which would amount to about 18,760 round-trip passengers a year travelling between the Coast and the south terminal of Vancouver International Airport.

“The demand would support either the 30-seat Saab 340 or the 19-seat Beechcraft 1900,” Mema wrote in his report, noting at least two regional air carriers have expressed interest in servicing the local airport if redeveloped and certified by Transport Canada.

Currently the airstrip is about 792 metres (2,600 feet) long. It would need to be extended to 1,219 metres (4,000 feet) to accommodate larger aircrafts. The airport would also need new lighting, a tower and security upgrades before it could become Transport Canada certified for regularly scheduled flights.

The estimated capital cost to expand the runway and upgrade the amenities is estimated at $11.5 million.

“This up-front funding will be sourced from other levels of government and agencies and leveraging of SCRA internally generated cash flows,” Mema noted.

After council accepted the report and business plan for information, Mema sought a resolution from council to submit a grant for about two-thirds of the cost of airport development to the provincial and federal arms of the New Building Canada Fund-Small Communities Fund (NBCF-SCF).

He asked for a resolution to seek $3.7 million from the provincial arm of NBCF-SCF and another $3.7 million from the federal arm.

The remainder, he said, would come from the SCRA and a $400,000 grant from the Island Coastal Economic Trust.

“The [District’s] $3.7 million is going to come from a line of credit for the new airport company. If you look at the business plan, we made a calculation to determine how much it could borrow and service. It has capacity to borrow in excess of $5 million,” Mema said.

The only councillor to speak against the move to seek grant money was Coun. Alice Lutes who said she didn’t see enough information in the business plan about operating costs to move forward with development at the airport.

“I don’t see an awful lot on the operations costs — just what that would be to us as a District of Sechelt to have any size airplane land. What will it cost us per seat, and how much of that will be covered by the fares being charged? And that’s the part I’m not seeing,” Lutes said.

“What I’m hearing from other communities is that’s the expensive part is the operating.”

Mayor John Henderson said there was information about operating costs in the document and noted the District wasn’t expanding the airport in a way that would “expose the general taxpayers to any cost.”

Mema agreed.

“The direction that I was given by the airport advisory committee was ‘find a way to make this work without any reliance on the public purse,’ and so the airport would actually be self sustaining financially in terms of operations,” Mema said.

When the vote was called, it passed with Lutes and Coun. Mike Shanks opposed.