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CITY ASKED TO BUY MORE LAND FOR AIRPORT
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by
Don McLean
March 4 - 10, 2010 |
The city is being asked to buy an undisclosed additional amount of land for the airport. The facility’s managers, Tradeport International, have reported large declines in passengers and flights last year, as well as a small reduction in the annual rent paid to the city.
The city’s Airport Implementation Task Force (AITF) is supporting “recommendations contained in report PED10022 respecting land acquisition”, according to minutes of the subcommittee forwarded to the economic development and planning committee. Report PED10022 has not been made public and was discussed in camera at the subcommittee’s February 18 meeting.
Previous land purchases requested by Tradeport have sharply split council. The prospect of more occurring in the future were cited by Chad Collins as the main reason for his late January motion asking staff to look into selling the airport.
“Knowing the state of our finances, why then would we take on the responsibility of purchasing land around the airport?” Collins asked at the January 27 council meeting. “I question then what would we have to lose if we were to look at selling the airport.”
He contends that it’s costing the city an average of $1 million a year for the land purchases and cited staff estimates that another $15–20 million will be required over the next few years. He compared that to the annual rent paid by Tradeport to the city and contended the city is losing about $900,000 a year on the current leasing arrangement.
That rent amount will be a little smaller this year – an expected $173,428 for 2009 instead of the $183,617 paid by Tradeport the previous year. That “revenue sharing” also requires the city to use 50 per cent of the monies to promote the airport.
Tradeport reported that 214,912 passengers boarded planes at the Glanbrook facility last year – down 21 per cent from the 272,239 recorded in 2008. A similar number each year landed at the airport. “Billable landings” of aircraft, including cargo flights, also dropped by just over 2000 planes, a decline of 15 per cent, according to a report provided to the AITF.
That report highlighted the January opening of a new fuel tank farm at the airport that “provides storage for 3.8 million litres of jet fuel” and represents an investment of $8.3 million.
Tradeport president Richard Koroscil, the president–elect of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, anticipates that 2011 “will be a big year in terms of growth as a result of what is being done in the marketplace,” according to the minutes of the January 29 AITF. At the same meeting, the city’s director of airport and industrial development, Guy Paparella, projected rent payments to the city would rise by 11 per cent in 2010.
At the subsequent meeting of the AITF, Paparella was unable to provide the subcommittee with a figure for the current worth of the airport, but noted that in 1995, “The value of the airport was reported at $44.5 million based on 1460 acres of land” and that “values around the airport have increased dramatically since that time.”
The 8 am meeting didn’t achieve a quorum within the required 30–minute period, leading to an unusual manoeuvre to avoid rescheduling.
“On a motion, the Rules of Order were waived with respect to the 48–hours notice to allow for the calling of a special meeting of the Airport Implementation Task Force at 8:50 am,” explains the minutes.
Collins is a member of this committee but missed this session, as did Terry Whitehead, leaving the decisions to the other three members of the AITF – Lloyd Ferguson, Dave Mitchell and Maria Pearson.
DON MCLEAN
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