Lake of Bays mayor wants out of airport - Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada.

Lake of Bays mayor want out of airport. Lake of Bays Mayor Bob Young. 

Pamela Steel

HUNTSVILLE-LAKE OF BAYS - Mayor Bob Young has said repeatedly that he would gladly sell Lake of Bays’ interest in the Gravenhurst airport for a dollar.

“I’ll give it to them; to hell with the dollar,” he said in an interview with this newspaper.

Young says that Lake of Bays doesn’t get any real benefit from the $80,000 it pays to the district per year, as its share of the airport’s expenses. He suggests the airport should be sold to a private company that would run it as a business or it could be run by a consortium in Bracebridge or Gravenhurst.

“It delivers the benefits to them; let them make any profits there are to be had,” he said.

The Lake of Bays’ share of airport costs is 10 per cent of the total.

Young said he has difficulties with plans to expand the airport.

“To date they have only identified $100,000 of revenue for an over $2.8-million investment,” he said

He said the district has approved the airport expansion in principal but there has not yet been any commitment of funds.

“For every dollar they spend we (Lake of Bays) pay 10 per cent through our tax allocations. We already pay them $80,000 a year – we need to be vigilant.”

He said the district has done a number of planning studies and it has indicated that the airport delivers $40 million worth of benefits to Muskoka.

“I got the study

Lake of Bays mayor wants out of Muskoka airport and had a look at it – it’s a style of analysis I’ve used in my own planning analysis,” he joked, saying the results were “specious.”

“I think these reports are not sound … These studies are suspicious; there’s a credibility problem when the data supporting the evidence is confidential.”

Young said he has tried to delve into the basis of the reports and been told that the information is confidential.

Huntsville Mayor Claude Doughty also questions the report.

“I share Bob’s concerns about the veracity of the report,” he said. “When you look at the basis on which that report was done there are certainly questions there that cause one to wonder about the veracity of the recommendations.”

Doughty estimates that Huntsville pays about twice as much as Lake of Bays to maintain the airport, but he also sees some benefit for his town.

“There are seasonal people that fly into that airport; that have cottages in the Huntsville area,” he said adding that Huntsville’s recreational flyers also make use of the facility.

The Huntsville mayor said at the most recent district corporate services meeting there was a motion agreed upon in principal to appoint a board of management to the airport. He had wanted the board of management to precede any expansion but the rule of council was that both go ahead simultaneously, according to Doughty.

He also said he would like to have discussions with the current owners of Deerhurst about expanding the airport at the resort.

But Lake of Bays, according to Young, is too far away from the airport to be able to benefit from it.

“I would suggest the majority of pilots in my township are in float planes … If you look at a map of Lake of Bays it’s mostly water.”

The mayor also pointed out that airport property taxes go to Gravenhurst.

Lake of Bays councillor Shane Baker is a member of the planning committee that is responsible for overseeing airport operations and says that discussions about the airport have been contentious at district this year.

“Mayor Young has to be thanked for illustrating what the airport is costing to operate and asking the question ‘Why are we in this business?’” said Baker in an email to this paper. “The problem is that the current discussions are focused on the potential for a major economic expansion at the airport that could include a training facility and 30 new jobs. Not to mention significantly higher fuel sales (our main source of revenue). Therefore, I feel any discussion of selling or giving the airport away is best suited to another time.”

Baker said comments from some councillors and members of the pilot’s lobby regarding district staff and the committee have been disappointing and disturbing.

“From my perspective the personal comments about district staff have been the most disturbing as I am quite impressed with their reports and abilities,” he said.

Baker said the federal government has handed the airport responsibility to the district and it was accepted.

“So from time to time I believe we owe it to the electorate to ask whether we should be in this business, just not right now,” he said.

Asked what the township might do with the $80,000 that currently goes to the airport Young said, “Put it into roads – or heaven forbid lower taxes.”

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