The Sudbury Airport could and should be an
economic engine for the City of Greater Sudbury. Instead, it is
a vastly under utilized economic engine that needs to fire
up.
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BUTCHER |
The city acquired the airport from the
federal government, Transport Canada, in March 2000. Sudbury
was the only city in Canada in which city
councillors appointed themselves to run the
airport. Other airports hired knowledgeable industry
staff.
One of the best examples of what might have
happened is to look at North Bay. The North Bay airport
literally took off and last year generated $35 million in
business. Thunder Bay did even better.
The Sudbury airport, on the other hand,
generated only about $2.5 million, or less than 10 per cent of
what the North Bay airport did.
Why? Profits at the Sudbury Airport are way
down. They have fallen from $575,000 in 2001 to $238,000 in
2002.
In 2003 city staff advised the Canadian
Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) that the airport will most
likely be in a loss or break-even situation. They explained
away this downward trend as being due to 9/11 and the fact that
Air Canada had gone into receivership last year.
When COPA pointed out that it was the only
airport in the north experiencing a downward trend, city staff
replied that we did not understand the complex situation.
Their situation fails to take into account
the simple fact that, other than Air Canada, the aviation
industry is booming in Canada. Passenger loads are back up to
pre-9/11 levels and never in the history of Canadian aviation
have so many airlines been started.
Two years ago COPA started to protest about
the how the airport was being operated. The first red flag was
when city staff downgraded the airport from a national airport
to a regional airport.
The downward trend of profits was another red
flag that something is very wrong at the airport.
We (COPA) presented a plan to the airport
board (aka city council) proposing that a new board be formed,
with council keeping two seats and the rest being made up of
Sudbury citizens who have either airport or business
experience. That was one year ago.
They responded by asking for the resignation
of the COPA member on the airport advisory panel. We did not
accept the invitation.
There seemed to be light at the end of the
tunnel after the municipal elections when Councillor Terry Kett
was elected. COPA approached Kett with the facts about the
airport. To say the least, Kett ran with it and the COPA model
of the new airport board became the Kett model and council
voted to move to the new board format by March 11.
Then in a stunning move March 25, council
voted to remove COPA from the new board. COPA enquired as to
why. The explanation given was that COPA, which is made up of
virtually the entire aviation community in Sudbury and area
(185 members) and is 86 per cent business owners, might not
appoint a qualified person. That explanation made no sense at
all.
What makes sense is the fact that COPA has
stated all along that we need to change the management away
from city staff and hire an
aviation/business expert to put the Sudbury
Airport back on track to financial success.
During the past two years city staff have
spent $11 million tax dollars at the airport and last year had
to ask the city for a $750,000 emergency bailout package - none
of which has increased revenues.
COPA is asking Sudbury citizens to call your
councillor and ask why is the Sudbury Airport the only airport
in the north that is operating in reverse mode?
Why is the list of proposed board members
submitted by COPA not being considered?
Why was the COPA appointed member of the
board removed?
Stephen Butcher
COPA co-chair
Candidate for Conservative Party
Sudbury Riding