CAA: GA News, "Users may face fee to spruce up Canadian airport"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sunday, October 27, 2002

Users may face fee to spruce up city airport
Businesses say improvement fees will fly with users to avoid possibility
of closure
By Mike Sadava 
Canada - The Edmonton Journal 

  
The City Centre Airport could charge passengers an improvement fee to
pay for renovations, say some aviation business owners at the airport.

That possibility is not being ruled out by the Edmonton Airports
Authority -- if the downtown airport is found to be necessary and kept
open. A new controversy about the possibility of closing the 75-year-old
airport was stirred up this week when Coun. Michael Phair made a motion
on a study that would re-evaluate the facility's future.

One factor affecting the viability of the City Centre Airport is $18
million in renovations needed over the next five years, including
repairs to sewers, runways and the control tower.

Airports across the country use improvement fees for capital works. At
Edmonton International Airport, where the fee is financing $250 million
worth of renovations, the charge per passenger rose this summer to $15
from $10.

"At the City Centre Airport it would be a considerable charge if we
considered that," said Glenn Rainbird, chairman of the Edmonton Airports
authority. "Certainly it is one of the mechanisms to fund capital
expansion. It might be a consideration, but it's early in the process."

Don Ste.-Croix, base manager of the Centennial Flight Centre, said users
of the downtown airport would accept the fee.

"They'll bitch about it, but if you put it to them that it's an extra 10
bucks instead of $40 or $50 in a cab and an extra hour, they'll go for
it," Ste.-Croix said.

Albert Cooper, president of Peace Air, said the amount needed for
renovation has probably been exaggerated because federal funding is
available.

But he also thinks an improvement fee would be accepted. 

"I suspect it wouldn't be a major issue at the municipal if people felt
the resources are being spent properly," Cooper said.

Rainbird said there are no imminent changes planned at the airport, but
all four airports under the authority's jurisdiction, including Cooking
Lake and Villeneuve, will be put under the microscope in coming months.

"Our efforts over the past few years have been to get the International
going, and now we're putting our sights to the longer- term view of the
system of airports that we run and asking questions about what's the
best way of managing the system of airports. Are they all necessary?"

While the 1995 referendum made City Centre a general aviation airport,
the city doesn't have to wait to rezone the land, said city lawyer Steve
Thompson.

Under the Municipal Government Act, a bylaw or resolution passed as a
result of a referendum can be repealed or amended after a minimum of
three years, as long as the proposed amendment is advertised, Thompson
said.

That means the city clearly doesn't need another public vote if it
decides to change the use of the land occupied by the airport, he said.


   Post your opinion on this story in the CAA General Aviation Forum
http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID2

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