- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor
Following the publication of the agenda for last night's Owen Sound Council meeting, we published the news that both sides had waived the conditions on the City's sale of the Owen Sound Billy Bishop Airport to Clayton Smith. At the same time, we asked several of the people who had shared their opinions about the impending sale on our pages for their reaction.
They were all generous enough to respond.
Jim Farmer, former Chair of the Billy Bishop Airport Advisory Committee, succinctly summarized what turned out to be the majority opinion - "The airport will now be operated by an owner who wants to have an airport. I can think of no downside pending communication with stakeholders."
Gordon Price is a local businessman who has been an airshow pilot for 45 years following service in the RCAF. He recently made a delegation to the Owen Sound City Council in favour of retaining the airport as a municipal asset, but he too agrees that this is a positive outcome. "I can’t think of any downside. This is great news as far as I am concerned. It is a good solution and with Mr Smith's track record I think everyone wins."
Richard MacDonald did not support the retention of the Billy Bishop Airport as a City property and he was pleased with the sale on a number of grounds. "The sale of the airport to Mr. Smith is possibly the best outcome anyone could have asked for. He has apparently been operating the Orillia airport successfully for about 5 years. The pilots and hanger owners are likely happy as well as the city."
The investment of the net sale price will be decided in early 2022. Mr MacDonald has some thoughts on that. "As for the $1.5M, it is not significant and there are lots of uses for it. I think you just have to keep your focus on community building and small business support."
As a hangar owner at the airport, Rod Matthews was pleased with the deal.
"Now that council has unanimously approved the sale of CYOS, I think it is a good thing for all stakeholders.
The most important thing in my opinion, is that it will continue to be ran as an airport therefore allowing for it’s continued use for medical transfers and Ornge helicopter/fixed wing instrument approach and fueling needs thus continuing to save lives as it has done since inception. To me, this is THE single most important issue that needed to be addressed with any deal made.
As a hangar owner, I am pleased to hear that our 40 year leases with the city for the land our hangars are built on will be honoured by the new owner.
I am also glad that the businesses that are located at the airport will now have stability with their leases once again also. The uncertainty surrounding the airport’s future has made it very difficult for the businesses based there to make plans for the future and even present operations.
The new owner has a proven track record in aviation, so I don’t think a more appropriate purchaser would likely be out there.
From the city’s point of view, the airport is still there to be used and the taxpayer does not have to pay for it.
I believe the airport will thrive with the new ownership/management of this very important piece of infrastructure so I really don’t see a downside.
At this point, I think it is a win/win situation!"
Not everyone agrees with the win-win analysis.
Another hangar owner, Dan Mersich, called it the "fire sale of the century". He continued:
"It would be interesting to know if the city has entered into a side agreement with the buyers whereby the city is committed to make payments of some kind, such as naming rights for instance, thus perhaps reducing purchase price even more.
Also under the radar is the possible loss of tax revenues to the city. To date the city has prevented tenants such as FedEx, UPS and other commercial operators from building at the airport because those businesses would pay taxes to Meaford and not Owen Sound. Fair enough. Will the new owners do the same? Not likely. Their interests are opposed.
The city had a fair complaint that Owen Sounders were paying the bills while many others such as Ornge, OPP, SAR, DND were getting a free ride. The solution was for the city to persuade or pressure those users into contributing; instead it demonized the hangar owners and dumped a valuable asset.
Let us not cry crocodile tears for hangar owners (of which I am one) but also let us not forget that during the term of the hangar leases the city will have collected $1.4 million in rents, six figures in profits of fuel sales to the hangar owners and ownership of hangars that have a replacement cost of $4 million+ in about 20 years. We could do with more demons like that."
image: Wil McReynolds, with his generous permission
