By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
Oliver still wants to go ahead with repaving the Oliver Airport Runway, despite being eligible for less grant money.
The BC Air Access Program Grant (BCAAP) provides up to $2 million from the province, with the grant funding covering between 50 to 90 per cent of the eligible project costs.
Oliver has now learned that they are not eligible for the last five per cent of the funding for the full 90 per cent. To be eligible the applicant must either be indigenous or considered rural or remote (meaning at least a three-hour drive away from the airport) or be a volunteer-run non-profit society.
The maximum amount the town is eligible for is then 85 per cent of the total costs.
The town has now produced a “Class B” estimate for reconstructing the runway which shows that the total cost would be $1,814,670. If the town receives 85 per cent funding that would equal $1,542,470. This would leave the town to contribute $272,200.
When this was first presented to council at the February 24 Committee of the Whole meeting, the recommendation was to go ahead with the repaving project only if the town received 90 per cent funding for the project.
At that time, with a “Class D” estimate the expectation was for the town to cover $198,100, a $74,000 difference from what the town would now have to cover.
Despite the decrease in grant eligibility, and the increase in the town’s share of the cost of the project, council was not deterred and doubled down on the importance of this project for the town.
Mayor Martin Johansen explained that “I think this is something we need to do, we need to deal with the deterioration of the runway, the cracking that we have there is pretty significant. It is an important economic driver for the South Okanagan and Oliver as well.”
Cracks in the runway are becoming increasingly difficult to repair without repaving the entire runway.
File photo
In the 2024 Airport Masterplan and the 2022 Hazard Identification Report, multiple capital requirements for the Oliver Municipal Airport were identified, and one of the major projects was repaving the runway.
Councillor Aimee Grice explained her position that “if we are successful at 75 per cent . . . I would like it to come back if we can, I think it’s worth another look. I think this is definitely a valuable project and necessary.”
Under the grant application, base funding of 75 per cent is provided for eligible costs of runway reconstruction, but there are some criteria that the town meets in order to support that additional 10 per cent funding.
These criteria include the fact that the facility has limited revenue streams. The constraints on the facility limit the type of aircraft that is able to use the airport. The distance to other larger regional airports limits the ability to offer regularly scheduled passenger flights. The airport also operates under a BC Government crown grant.
Another criterion is that the community has greenhouse gas reduction plans, policies, or procedures in place.
The project will also help support Medevac operations. For these types of evacuations, Medevac typically uses a six-passenger plane and would use the runway. Along with this, wildfire operations would be able to use spotter planes, even though they typically just use helicopters.
The project, if completed, would also be able to support emergency response situations where road transportation is restricted, whether for the movement of supplies, tools, equipment or people.
Lastly the project is likely to have a significant economic impact. Investing in the runway, which is the most crucial infrastructure of the airport, “could attract additional interest from private users, flight businesses (flightseeing tours and flight instruction), and additional hangar development,” the town’s report explained.
Improving the economic impact of the airport is something that Oliver Town Council, and the Oliver Airport Advisory Committee has been working on for a while.
As previously reported on by the Times Chronicle, the town plans to lobby the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship to expand their Land Use Operational Policy in order to increase revenue at the airport. Initial ideas were to expand uses for potential dorms, offices or even housing.
Grice noted that in this application to BCAAP for the runway repaving it’s “interesting that the BC Air Access Program has acknowledged that we have a limited revenue stream due to the fact that we operate under a BC government crown grant and perhaps we can use that in our discussions with the ministry.”
