June 15, 2013
By Christine Wood
Did you know Sechelt has an airport?
The
tiny airstrip atop Field Road in Wilson Creek may be better known for
drag races than air travel, but the District of Sechelt’s airport
development advisory committee is aiming to change that.
The
committee wants to expand the airport and invite larger operators to
create scheduled flights between Sechelt and Vancouver. Currently the
airport is used by small planes and private operators that don’t offer
the sought after flights.
In order to make the change, Sechelt
must first expand their runway from 800 to 1,330 metres, upgrade their
terminal building and install new lighting, which comes with a price tag
of about $4.6 million, according to committee chair Coun. Chris Moore.
“But we’re ready to go. We could start tomorrow if we could write the cheque,” Moore said.
While
the idea’s not a new one (many Sechelt councils have put airport
expansion on their agenda, but never secured the funds) Moore says
things are different this time.
The committee has already
compiled a detailed business case and marketing plan as well as a
brochure and PowerPoint presentation pitching the benefits of developing
the airport. The pitch includes the offer of 61 hectares of airport
property that can be developed for specific uses and the right to brand
the airport.
The idea is to pursue a public-private partnership (P3) to get the airport expansion done.
“We
do touch on that in the business case. There is at least a modest
profit to be made,” Moore said, pointing to the airport partnership
between Fort Langley and their local Rotary club, which proved
profitable. “The strategy is to meet individuals on a P3 level, and
we’re prepared to take that anywhere. We’d be in control of the whole
thing the whole time. We would get tax benefits, obviously, which would
be great, but more importantly, you create job opportunities with well
paying jobs and you have regular service to the Sunshine Coast.”
Moore
sees a potential partnership as a “win-win,” but his committee is not
putting all their eggs in that basket. They’re pushing for grant funding
at the provincial level too.
“Our strategy with the provincial
politicians has been not just to meet with the politicians, because we
didn’t know who was going to win the election, but to meet with the
bureaucracy that supported the various ministries, to get our face in
front of them on a name-to-name basis and bring our PowerPoint
presentation forward and say this is what we want, this is what we have
and this is what we ask, and we accomplished that extremely well,” Moore
said.
Now that the election is over and the same government is in power Moore noted the committee “will be pursuing that with vigour.”
He
sees the expansion of the airport as an important economic stimulus for
the Sunshine Coast and a viable form of transportation apart from BC
Ferries.
“BC Ferries did a study years ago about what they
perceived as the number of individuals who would use aircraft as opposed
to ferry and they used four per cent of ridership — that’s a huge
number. I think four per cent translated into something like 15 flights a
day,” he said. “We’re not operating with anywhere near that kind of
optimism but even if it was a half per cent, we just want to get regular
scheduled service on an ongoing basis.”
The airport development advisory
committee meets every two weeks at the District of Sechelt. Meetings are
open to the public. Find their upcoming agendas online at www.sechelt.ca.
Source: http://www.coastreporter.net
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