North Bay’s Jack Garland Airport will be front and centre at Tuesday night’s meeting of North Bay city council.
Council will discuss a staff report which stresses the economic importance of the airport to the city and the region.
The city was left reeling by Air Canada’s recent announcement that it intended to pull up stakes.
See: Air Canada announcement 'devastating' news for Jack Garland Airport and local economy
The city appears ready to pull out all the stops to make the airport operation viable.
“The North Bay airport is an essential part of the economic infrastructure of the City of North Bay. City council is determined to do everything we can to maintain it as a sustainable operation and work towards seeing service levels return to historic levels as soon as conditions permit,” said city councillor Chris Mayne.
“The airport is a key economic asset for the community. There are hundreds of jobs at stake. Companies like Voyageur Aviation Corp. Canadore College, the helicopter complex, MNRF, Nav Canada, and 65 mining companies in the area all benefit from and use connections that the North Bay airport provides to both domestic and international flight connections.”
Tuesday night’s discussion will focus on three key areas.
“Number one is talking with our federal and provincial government partners to see if assistance can be provided in the immediate term and over the short term to keep the airport viable,” shared Mayne who went on to say the second focus is to “Invite other airlines to consider providing that North Bay to Toronto service if there is no success in getting Air Canada back to the table.”
The third area of importance is to work through the North Bay Jack Garland Airport Corporation to develop a sustainable budget through 2021.
“Like, what could we do to minimize costs; staffing, operations? What is the minimum amount we need from the city to keep the airport open? There will be a request before council for $1.5 million, $200,000 per month over a year,” Mayne added.
“So, we’re looking to guarantee the airport that we’re going to find that money to make sure the operation stays open. The airport board in turn is going to do everything it can to minimize their budget costs through the year so that we can find a sustainable budget.”
Mayne who sits on the airport board as a representative of council, says the airport is working on a small portion of its regular revenues.
“That is MNRF, Chorus, MedEvac flights, and charters combined account for about 15 to 20 per cent of their regular revenues,” said Mayne.
“In the short term we’re comfortable as a city with some support from other levels of government, we can sustain the airport until air travel conditions improve or return to more normal levels.”
Mayne says if the report gets council’s support, the next step would be to arrange meetings with Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Anthony Rota and Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.
“We’ve been pleased to hear there has been significant funding coming from both levels of government from COVISD-19 situations,” said Mayne.
“The airport situation specifically has not been mentioned, but we’re optimistic that some consideration will be given to this unique situation that only a few municipalities are in with the suspension of air services to their communities.”
Tuesday night's regular meeting of city council goes virtual starting at 6:30 p.m.
