The District of Squamish plans to hire an aviation consultant with expertise in managing and creating best practices at the airport. The expert will also evaluate long-term lease requests from existing tenants and identify any future opportunities at the airport.
The budget to hire an aviation expert is $45,000. There are currently five tenants operating at the Squamish Municipal Airport-Don Patrick Airfield: Glacier Air, Sea to Sky Air, Blackcomb Aviation, Black Tusk Helicopter and the Squamish Flying Club.
The Squamish airport is located on a 58-hectare parcel of land with a 2,400 square feet runway constructed by the Squamish Flying Club with technical assistance from Transport Canada.
According to the District, there is no airport strategy to guide its management and long-term planning to ensure it operates in a sustainable manner. The consultant will make recommendations on airport rules, and coordinate the short-term lease negotiations, though will not take part in these negotiations.
The consultant will also explore grants and job creation at the airport, and provide a final report to the District on management, leasing, funding, economic development and further community engagement.
Donald Patrick says
Not to confuse but the airport has had the services of an aviation consultant for many years … this is not new and we have all had experts on the scene in the past … the leases for the operators are so important with respect to procurement and operations … hard to borrow monies when you have no secure tenure on the land. The Cheekeye Fan is still an issue and until that is settled, who knows …. but a step in the right direction. Just a reminder that the users of the airport pay land leases and property tax that takes care of the costs to the DOS. If it were not for the past direction of the Flying Club, and operators the airport lands would have been another condominium community.
Tom Candy says
Copy all that Don….the place has been in operation since 1974…but now we need another boo-crat