The Cold Lake Regional Airport is hoping to land some funding from the MD of Bonnyville to improve its taxiways.
Airport users Jeff Knight and Eric Hansen made a presentation to the MD of Bonnyville during their meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 10, regarding the current state of the taxiways at the regional airport.
Their ask, is for the MD to match the City of Cold Lake's contribution of $500,000.
The money would be used to pave taxiways to undeveloped airplane hangars, which according to Knight, pilots have already shown interest in.
However, one-time funding wasn't all they were after.
“We also hope to have a successful inter-municipal cooperative effort with the MD of Bonnyville and the City of Cold Lake in providing resources and funding to complete this regional airport taxiway project,” expressed Knight.
Currently, about one-third of the 30 airport users live within the MD of Bonnyville, however, an agreement hasn't been made with the MD to reallocate the tax base from airport hangar leases back to the city. Last year, about $40,000 went to the MD in taxes from the airport, including levies and school taxes.
Airport users want to come to an agreement with the MD on the tax base. What they would like to see is the money given to the City of Cold Lake so it can be used for capital improvement at the airport or general airport operations.
“Unfortunately, this tax money is not specifically earmarked for airport improvement. It's simply added to the general revenue of council and is spent elsewhere,” Knight said. “The airport users believe this is unacceptable given the current conditions of the essential infrastructure of the airport.”
Council clarified the funds are given back to the city, they just may not know it.
“Under the terms of the Bonnyville Airport, there's an agreement where we do return that money to them, and they take it out of the Inter-Municipal Collaboration Program (IMCP). There's no change in the budget, it's just that the town is aware that tax money is for the airport. Currently, if you decided to do something for the Cold Lake airport, the money you give them will not change,” CAO Chris Cambridge clarified.
He continued, if council did decide to create an agreement, it could articulate the money provided could be, or should be, used for capital or operating costs at the airport.
Knight described unusable, soft, and muddy taxiway conditions for most of the flying season. In some cases, the condition of the taxiways is so poor, planes and other equipment are damaged.
“We looked for airports that had the same problem, and even Lacombe, which is the exact same footprint we have here… even they have paved taxiways, but unfortunately this particular airport seems to be the orphan, once it was built, it was forgotten,” added Knight.
With the city's contribution of $500,000, they're able to pave a good portion of the developed taxiway areas, while the MD's contribution will help the airport take it a step further.
Once the taxiways are paved, Knight is sure people will step up to the plate and build hangars on the undeveloped sites.
“There's a waiting list of people wanting to build on those sites, but they're not willing to pull the trigger on that build yet because they have no way to get from their new $250,000 or $500,000 hangar, depending on the size, to the actual runway,” Knight stated.
In 2011, the same project was estimated to cost $2.2-million, at a cost of $115 per square-metre.
Now, this project is expected to ring-in at just over $1-million, with a few adjustments.
“We had an independent estimate given to us by a company that operates around Cold Lake for $60 per square-metre. We can have that overall cost brought down to as low as $1.2-million for the entire thing to be done,” explained Knight.
But, there are more cost-saving options.
In 2011, when the original project was designed, the entire airport was required under the standards for the design and development for airports, to be built to a standard size depending on the aircraft expected to be flying in and out of the airport.
Now, airport operators can determine the best-suited size for certain areas of taxiway based on the aircraft using it.
“What that does is reduces your cost again, and we now have it down where we can bring it in for around $1-million, which is why we are looking for the $500,000 from the city and potentially $500,000 from the MD. That's a significant cost-savings over what the 2011 dollars were,” continued Knight.
Over the years, the city has maintained and operated the airport, including upgrading the runway, and the airport terminal.
Hansen said, some upgrades have required grant funding, but overall, the city has been maintaining the airport to date.
Council agreed to visit the airport in the spring prior to making a decision.
