City of Powell River council has approved spending money from the airport reserve for an airport upgrade project if the city can’t use money already approved by the federal government.
Council passed a motion at the May 3 meeting to proceed with selective patching of Taxiway Bravo as part of the main taxiway and apron rehabilitation project. If Transport Canada funding is unavailable for this work, the motion authorized using up to $32,000 from the airport reserve.
The city has received $1.6 million from the federal government’s Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP) for the project. Originally, the work plan included a 13-day closure of the apron. To avoid that, city staff developed a plan that reduced runway closures to two to three days, but it involves upgrading the taxiway and apron in front of Oceanview Helicopters and the Westview Flying Club, called Taxiway Bravo.
City staff would like to use part of the money from the ACAP grant for that part of the project, but the federal government program only funds improvements that affect commercial carriers.
Mayor Dave Formosa and councillors Chris McNaughton and Debbie Dee have been lobbying MP John Weston, who represents West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, and Transport Canada to allow improvements to Taxiway Bravo, but so far the federal government has not changed its rules.
Weston told the Peak he has been in contact with the ministry of transport about the issue. “We’ve been working with the ministry ever since we heard of this issue,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure that there’s no miscommunication between Powell River and the ministry of transport which would lead the ministry wrongly to conclude that there’s no safety element in what Powell River wants to achieve with this funding.”
Weston also wrote a letter to mayor and council, updating them on his efforts. Dee read out the letter at the council meeting. Weston explained that he was continuing to work to reverse the initially negative decision. “We cannot guarantee a favourable result, but can say that we are doing everything possible to keep this application among the minister’s priorities,” he wrote.
Dee said letters from various stakeholders and user groups about the impact of closing the runway included one from Vancouver Coastal Health. She said the letter stated “any closure of the airport or any disruption would be critical to patient safety here.”
