Williams Lake City Council received feedback this week from one of its major stakeholders at the airport regarding the City’s proposed Airport Improvement Fee, and it wasn’t positive.
For almost 20 minutes Kevin Boothroyd of Pacific Coastal Airlines shared his and his company’s concerns over the possibility of having to collect more fees from passengers coming and going from the Williams Lake Airport when Williams Lake already has the highest fee of 16 similar-sized airports throughout the entire province.
Currently a round trip from the Williams Lake Airport costs each passenger approximately $30 in airport fees. The proposed bylaw will see another $10 added each way, bringing the cost up to $50 in fees for a round trip per passenger that Pacific Coastal Airlines would have to collect for the City. Boothroyd said this would reduce their ability to compete with other airports in the region, especially Quesnel.
“We’re trying to understand why another $10 would be placed on top of that, which would bring an additional cost to the airline to your customer and why that’s necessary at this time?” Boothroyd asked the council.
Consultation and communication at the airport and the projects surrounding it were another grave concern for Boothroyd. As a main stakeholder, he said Pacific Coastal Airlines was frustrated at being informed about the proposal only shortly before the public and said they did not get a chance to discuss their concerns with council prior to Tuesday evening’s meeting.
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“I must say, this is an ongoing issue unique to this airport. Things happen and consultation is very limited,” Boothroyd said. “I’ll give you an example; just recently, at the end of August, you broke ground in front of the airport … our base was informed there was a meeting at 12:30 p.m. about it, but at 9:30 a.m. that morning, they broke ground. So they were going to consult us three hours after they had completed the act.”
Mayor Walt Cobb responded to the concerns about consultation, saying its standard practice for them to do so just before informing the public. Boothroyd objected and suggested consulting airport stakeholders should be standard practice as it allows the companies to gather intelligence prior to the proposal of a new bylaw, as it would be with something like a mall.
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Coun. Scott Nelson said what council has done and continues to try and do is make the airport a self-sufficient entity. While he agrees discussing these fees is part of the public consultation process, Nelson said council is looking to the future on how they’re going to pay for the improvements the airport needs.
“Williams Lake has consistently upgraded its airport, be it as a fire protection site, on its fuel supply or in terms of the architectural structure and length of the runway,” Nelson said. “At the end of the day whether it’s five bucks, three bucks, 10 bucks or 20 bucks that’s what we’re here for tonight.”
Nelson said almost 34,000 people fly out of Williams Lake Airport every year and council expects that number to grow. To help accommodate and maintain this growth, he said the money has to come from somewhere.
“I can tell you the airport makes money but it doesn’t make a lot of money and that’s why we’re looking at additional opportunities,” Nelson explained. “We know that we’ve put a lot of emphasis behind diversifying that airport as quickly as possible while the good times are here, to ensure that when the hard times come you have a (financial) cushion built up.”
Many of the council members including Nelson apologized for the lack of consultation given to Pacific Coastal Airlines and thanked Boothroyd for informing them of this issue.
Michael Jones also spoke to the proposed Airport Improvement Fee as a representative of the Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce, questioning where the fees for the last five years have gone and where they are currently going.
After receiving public comment, which was the intent, council voted unanimously to move the matter forward to the next Committee of the Whole meeting where it will be discussed in further detail.
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