Dear Editor:

Town of Osoyoos council’s recently announced decision to explore repurposing the lands at the Osoyoos Airport would hurt local businesses, cost jobs, and cripple the community’s growth.

Since 2011, Tom McHale, Glen Harris, and Rob Rausch along with former Mayor Stu Wells, CAO Barry Romanko and senior planner Alain Cunningham met on several occasions to discuss the development and expansion of the Osoyoos Airport.

The improvement plans for the airport were broken into four phases.

Phase One and Two were completed by 2006 with the paving of the runway and Phase Three – re-construction of the intersection on Highway 3 and installation of services – was completed shortly thereafter.

This represented an investment of over $500,000 of provincial and local dollars.

We were led to believe that we were working with mayor and council on Phase Four, which included examining all aspects of improvements that would be required to upgrade the airport to a Code 2B runway, while at the same time adding to our industrial land base.

Two reports have been jointly funded between Tom McHale (Gemstone Group of Companies), Glen Harris (Osoyoos Shoreline Development Limited), Osoyoos Indian Band and the Town of Osoyoos.

These reports include the Osoyoos Airport Upgrading Plan prepared by Associated Engineering for Gemstone Group of Companies that was released in June 2013 and an Osoyoos Airport Economic Impact Assessment that was released in January 2014.

Our next step is to create the business plan that will support these initiatives.

The $4.5 to $5 million dollars that is being quoted is inaccurate. More importantly, the cost of the phased expansion of the airport will not be borne by taxpayers.

In the September 8, 2011 Osoyoos Times edition it clearly states “A proposal that could see expansion of the Osoyoos Airport at no cost to taxpayers seems to already have members of the Osoyoos Town Council flying high. Cost of the expansion and upgrades would be borne by third parties and would not burden the ratepayers of the Town of Osoyoos,” said McHale.

That statement still stands true today.  However, purchasing the airport land from the province and the service improvements such as surveying, sewer and water, electrical and additional road work that will be required for the proposed industrial lots will likely be paid for by the taxpayers of Osoyoos.

We do agree that there has been limited aircraft activity with the airport, but that is not due to the lack of interest by the aviation community.

It is due to the lack of security and safety for aircraft currently not provided at the airport.

This is exactly why we want to continue to move this project forward.

The Osoyoos Airport is a unique site as we are able to expand and the lots surrounding the runway are freehold, which is very appealing to potential investors.

Almost all other municipal airports are on leased land, which makes it almost impossible for individuals to have access to conventional funding.

Since 2011, we do know of a couple of companies that would have located their aviation businesses to the airport – one of which now employs over 40 people.

Unfortunately, they were not welcomed by the town and have located in a neighbouring community.

We don’t want to discourage future potential investors.

Since Osoyoos is designated as one of the 14 resort municipalities in British Columbia, it is extremely important to make air travel into the community one of our priorities – not only for tourism or business, but also for medical emergencies.

In the town of Nelson, council fought to preserve their airstrip, as they knew they would never be able to create another one.

If you ask any civic official In Whistler what the number one item on their wish list is, they will tell you it’s an airport.

The Osoyoos Airport, as we envision it, would allow for light industry, but of far greater benefit would also bring dollars earned elsewhere home to be spent here.

We are trying to facilitate a better quality of traffic where we move commuters to and from their place of work in resource communities as well as our leisure and business guests.

However, we cannot leverage our strongest assets (warm weather and water) to bring high-income earners here without the airport.

If we throw our support behind airports up the valley (Oliver, Penticton or Kelowna) then that is where these commuters will put down roots.

We look forward to working with all levels of government to move this project forward and if anyone is interested in joining the Osoyoos Airport Development Society to assist in continuing this project to its fruition, then please contact us via email at [email protected].

Osoyoos Airport Development Society

Glen Harris, Tom McHale, Diana Thomas, Rob Rausch, and Jason Bartsch