Plane (Image from Tobermory municipal website)
Northern Bruce Peninsula staff will be working with a party interested in purchasing the Tobermory Municipal Airport.
Council heard from Tom Brown, a partner of the Durante Group of Milton, during a meeting on July 24.
The Tobermory airport is managed by the municipality and currently has three buildings, two fabric hangars and a terminal building.
Brown is a Tobermory resident, pilot and was the manager of Grimsby Regional Airport.
According to the delegation, the municipality spends $30,000 to $40,000 annually to operate the airport.
Brown says there has been a tendency for municipalities to divest themselves of municipal airports when there is the possibility of entrepreneurship.
“I am sure that council and the mayor is aware that (Wiarton-Keppel was recently divested), Owen Sound divested their airport and so did Wingham,” says Brown. “The purpose of my delegation today is to see if there is an interest with the council in divesting the airport and selling it to me and to my partners.”
He says as a result of a lack of activity at the airport and how it is not open in the winter, there are no permanent sources of revenue.
“There is very little revenue sources because there is not much fuel sold, not much rent collected and not much activity that generates income. So essentially, the airport has deteriorated. On a recent visit when I flew in last week, the weeds in the airport are growing through the cracks, which were repaired about 10 or 12 years ago and nothing has been addressed to that, and the asphalt is very close to breaking up, once that happens the airport may become unusable.”
He adds there is also no way for transient pilots to get into town, and while at one time there were bicycles provided, but they have since disappeared.
Commercial activity like a flight school or air tour business, an instrumental approach to allow safe landings in varying weather, and self serve fuel are also mentioned as ways to improve the airport.
“We also do a lot of entrepreneurial things with our other airports and I think we could bring some of that entrepreneurial spirit to the Tobermory Airport while guaranteeing the land would remain an airport because of its critical nature and evacuation or for example medical emergencies. We do quite often have the orange helicopters come in to other airports for critical care and we cooperate with EMS facilities in the Niagara region for that purpose, we would guarantee that would continue,” says Brown.
Brown asked if council would be open to transferring the ownership of the airport with conditions, which would include if it were ever to be sold, it would remain an airport.
Council ended up approving have staff work with Brown on this potential sale and bring a report back to council possibly within two months.