Georgian Bluffs council has declared the Wiarton Keppel International Airport surplus and is putting it up for sale.
A release from the Township says a bylaw to authorize the sale will be presented at the October 6th council meeting.
Mayor Dwight Burley says the future of the airport has been a topic of discussion for years now. Georgian Bluffs bought the Town of South Bruce Peninsula out of its share of the ownership in 2015 for $600,000.
Burley says when the Township first bought the airport, it made upgrades to the infrastructure and made the restaurant operational. It also hired an airport manager consultant the Loomex Group.
But Burley argues municipalities face constraints the private sector does not, in terms of being able to make a profit, “You’ll never turn an airport that size around until it makes money on the municipal side. The private sector I think would do an awful lot better job.”
He explains, “We were elected by our ratepayers and we are responsible to our ratepayers to do the best we can for them. “We’ve listened to both sides of the story and we feel that as a lower-tier municipality, it’s too big a facility for us to be putting taxation dollars to make it run— and should a municipality be in a business like that in the first place?”
“It’s a certified airport,” says Burley, adding “It’s very unique in itself and it costs taxpayers about $300,000- $400,000 a year. We knew we cannot keep continuing on the way we are, so we, as a council decided that the time has come that we would introduce our bylaw and put it up as surplus property and put it up for sale and see what happens here in the next while.”
The Wiarton Keppel international Airport is a seasonal port of entry, meaning it has the ability to provide customs services to people entering from foreign countries. A Loomex Group presentation to Grey County this past June says it has a primary runway of about 5000 ft with a secondary runway. It’s open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and is also host to Nav Canada’s back-up navigation equipment for Central Ontario. They say it’s used for medevac flights and also note the airport can accommodate military and commercial aircraft other airports in the region cannot.
Burley says “Everyone agrees the facility should keep running as a certified airport,” noting the Township has spoken with both Grey and Bruce Counties as well as nearby municipalities including South Bruce Peninsula.
One idea has been to make the airport an economic hub for the region. Burley says the intent of that June presentation to Grey County council proposing a two-year agreement in which the County would contribute up to $175,000 a year (or 50 per cent of the operating deficit) didn’t quite land with councillors. “I don’t really feel it was presented in a proper fashion to county council because they thought that Georgian Bluffs wanted a handout for the operating costs of the airport. That was not the intent. The intent was that we have over 400 acres of land that could be promoted for businesses and so on, to bring in taxation for the County and for Georgian Bluffs and jobs for the whole area.”
Burley says, “We just needed a hand to get that started to bring in the proper developer that could do that.”
That same June Loomex Group presentation noted the airport’s economic impact on the region is $2.4 million. It also noted closing the airport would cost about $2.5 million.
According to a release from the Township, the community is welcome to virtually attend the October 6th meeting, ask questions regarding the sale or submit written comments for consideration of Council.
The meeting will also be livestreamed to the Township of Georgian Bluffs YouTube channel.
To participate in the meeting or submit comments, you can contact the Clerk, ahead of October 4th.
The Township says offers for purchase of the lands and facility are required to be presented to the Township’s attention by October 14, 2021.
In the meantime, the facility will continue to operate as a certified airport throughout the sale process.