City council has lost the real purpose of why the Owen Sound Billy Bishop Regional Airport was built. It does not exist to provide a subsidized place for pilots to keep their airplanes.
It is a critical part of the National and Provincial transportation system, used by all levels of government. That is why 80% of the cost to establish it was paid for by the province.
The cost of operating the airport is offset by selling gas to private aircraft owners, hanger leases and rent from the businesses on the airport. It is the pilots that subsidize the airport, not the other way around.
The federal government uses the airport to train search and rescue techs, to refuel search and rescue missions, (July 19), to logistically support the army training center in Meaford, as a training facility for aircrew going over seas to fly from smaller airports, as a training facility for the soldiers from Meaford and as a refueling stop for the RCMP.
The province uses the airport to support the OPP, the Ministry of Natural Resources rabies bait program and to refuel Air Ambulances. Organs for Life fly donated organs out of the Owen Sound Airport to save lives in a very time sensitive mission.
City residents benefit most from the support that the airport provides to Ornge. People see the orange helicopters fly overhead, but generally don’t know that Ornge also operate fixed wing planes which need a runway. On the Facebook page Save Owen Sound Airport you will see a story by Tara Byrne with photos of her new born baby being loaded into an airplane ambulance for a life saving trip to a Neonatal Critical Care facility. The airport also provides 24-hour refueling (July 25) and an instrument landing system when bad weather prevents the helicopter from landing at the hospital. (July 8) The Billy Bishop Airport is only 5 minutes away from the hospital.
According to the records sent by the Airport Manager to the city it is estimated that the airport was used by Ornge an average of 40 times per year (2002 to 2020). Records were kept from 8 am to 5 pm and then increased by 30% as Ornge uses the airport 24 hours per day. Over 30 years that adds up to 1200 potentially lifesaving flights in support of the citizens of Owen Sound.
A recent letter to City council published in the Hub, written by the Hospital's Chief of Surgery and Chief of Emergency Medicine states that losing the airport puts care for critical patients ‘at risk’.
Besides saving lives there are other benefits to having the airport. It is a flight training center and many students have earned commercial pilot licenses at Owen Sound Flight Services. They have gone on to careers flying for NATO, Air Canada and West Jet as well as smaller regional airlines. And yes, recreational pilots train there too. The aircraft maintenance facility supports the Co-op programs in the local high schools and brings pilots to Owen Sound to support local businesses.
Municipal airports are also used to attract industries and investment. Hanover and Collingwood actively market their airport. Interesting that the owensound.ca website shows a picture of the airport but does not include it in the marketing sections of the web site or their marketing materials.
How did we get here? Council relies heavily on advice in reports from City Staff with little independent research of their own. And that has led to some unfortunate decisions because city managers over the last 20 years seem to be against having a municipal airport. Axing the airport is seen to be a way to save money, and to reduce staff headaches caused by a city owned airport that is not even in the city. Here are three examples of decisions over the last 20 years that have increased the net cost to the city by either increasing cost or decreasing revenue.
Each hanger at the airport generates at least $1000 and depending on fuel usage of the airplane that it houses, up to $4000 per year. Healthy airports see 2 or 3 hangers being built every year. Five years ago, the city put the lease rate up by 3 ½ times to generate more revenue. Instead of generating revenue, under the new rate not one hanger has been built since. So, the cost goes up.
The City has just awarded a new contract to manage the airport. The existing manager had the contract for 10 years and it could have been renewed for another year, with only a cost-of-living increase. Instead, the city put out a new RFP that included a marketing plan. The new contract has put the cost of managing the airport up some $29,000. The marketing plan now seems to be less important as a few months after awarding the contract the city management has recommended selling off the airport. The old contract included labour to cut grass and blow snow. The new contract does not. This will involve the addition of hundreds of hours of labour per year for city staff according to former Airport Manager Barry Lewin. A large cost increase is sure to result.
The new landing fee has been a disaster for the airport. No other municipal airport in North America has a landing fee for small private aircraft. A pilot from Kanata who was a regular visitor to the city, took the time to write to the Hub and say:
As a result of the landing fees, I will NEVER return to land at Owen Sound Airport. The misguided decision to impose a landing fee means that I will not spend one dollar purchasing fuel at Owen Sound… The decision to impose landing fees is economic suicide. Other communities use their airports as economic engines. Lindsay and Peterborough are examples. It is a shame that Owen Sound lacks the leadership to understand these issues.
Due to the landing fees, gas sales are down, and traffic is almost nonexistent. Hangers are for sale with no buyers, and aircraft based there that paid to park, and bought gas, have been sold. Again, the net cost goes up. All in control of the City Staff and Council.
Will there be a change in direction from City Council? In my opinion not until they stop marching in step behind the City Manager. If you look at the video of a recent council meeting (minute 13:35) the present City Manager gives a thumbs down in full view of the City Councillors. He does so before Gord Price even starts to make his presentation about the airport. Rude, unprofessional, and very telling.
Here is a good example of the lack of information being given to city councillors. In a Sun Times article of July 19, it was reported that letters were read to council from two Doctors, outlining how important the airport is to the timely transportation of the sickest of the patients. It is reported that (Coun. John) “Tamming said the doctors’ letters contain no data or analysis, only statements that occasionally the airport is useful for emergency transfers. I can’t put a lot of weight on the medical side of keeping the airport in the absence of data,” he said.’ Please note that the average of 40 Ornge flights per year that directly rely on the airport comes from monthly and yearly reports that the manager of the airport is mandated to provide to the City Manager through the Operations Committee. Apparently Coun. Tamming is expecting Doctors at the Grey Bruce Regional Health Center to provide information to him about statistics generated and reported by City Staff. Shouldn’t City Staff be giving this critical data to City Council so that they can make informed decisions?
A more balanced approach is reported form Coun. Merton. She is quoted as follows:
‘Merton said the city also hasn’t addressed the airport’s role in emergency management planning. “I’d like to pose the question: is the airport nice to have or do we need to have it? Sometimes it’s more than dollars and cents and it is about human lives,” she said.’
City Council voted to impose the landing fee based on city staff recommending a fee of $35.00 per landing. Backing that up was… nothing. The dollar amounts quoted were not explained. The ramifications of a landing fee were not revealed in the report but were obvious to all.
The voices opposed to the landing fee included a petition with over 3000 signatures, the hanger owners who have existing leases with the city, and the city-paid airport manager, who was not consulted and had been managing the airport for the city for 10 years.
Now city staff is recommending closing the airport. That is opposed by among others, critical care doctors at the Grey Bruce Regional Health Center as noted above.
Moving forward there are several ways to make the airport a vibrant asset for the city and the Region. An informal group is working hard to find new sources of funding, better define potential future costs and to educate the public on the benefits to the Region of having the Billy Bishop Regional Airport available to all. They are informally led by Gord Price whose career has included all facets of aviation. They would be an excellent nucleus in re-establishing the Airport Advisory Committee. A professional yet free resource working for the good of the Owen Sound area.
Lake Simcoe Regional Airport near Barrie is owned jointly by the City of Barrie, (10%) and the County of Simcoe (90%). Perhaps it is time for the region to help secure the future of the Billy Bishop Regional Airport to the benefit of all the stakeholders in the area that it serves, and not have Owen Sound be the only funder of the net cost. With some dedicated effort, broad thinking and willingness to change this could again be a vibrant resource.
The present airport budget is approximately $235,000, in the 2021 city operating budget of $39 million dollars. Let’s ignore for a moment the other benefits and just consider that number as the cost of supporting the air ambulance service. The Grey Bruce Regional Health Center has demonstrated that it needs the airport 40 times per year so that Ornge can provide lifesaving transportation for critically ill patients.
If it is worth a million dollars a year to support the library, and a half million dollars a year to support the art gallery, is it worth less than 1 percent of the city budget to make sure the air ambulance service can provide lifesaving support to the citizens of Owen Sound?
Jim Farmer
Former Chair of the Billy Bishop Airport Advisory Committee.
