Mountain View County councillors have put off a vote on a bylaw that would establish an airport advisory committee (AMC) to replace the current management committee for the Olds-Didsbury and Sundre airports.
Last month councillors passed first reading of Bylaw 22-12. The bylaw was scheduled to come before council last week for second and third reading, but at the Feb. 13 council meeting, councillors passed a motion to defer the vote until April 10.
Councillors also passed a motion on Feb. 13 instructing administration to set up an all-council workshop on March 26 to discuss the "long-term solutions to airport viability.î
Two members at large of the management committee will be invited to the workshop.
Councillors met in a closed-door meeting with hangar owners at the county office on Feb. 6 to discuss the bylaw.
Reeve Bruce Beattie said the county has a number of reasons for wanting to establish an airport advisory committee.
"There's a problem from council's perspective about who is actually responsible to make sure everything operates well and who ultimately has the liability if something should occur there,î Beattie told the Gazette.
"How do we protect the interest of the county and how do we make sure that airports operate so that they are not a cost to taxpayers, but rather a positive for the taxpayers.
"We want to make sure it is not costing us. We are trying to understand where we are from a financial perspective. We want to make sure they are self-sufficient and we want to make sure they are well operated. It is not to say that they are not currently, but they belong to the county and they belong to the ratepayers, so the question is who is responsible for running them.î
The bylaw establishing the airport management committee (No. 12-06) was passed in 2007. If approved the new advisory committee would replace that committee.
The new committee's duties would include providing recommendations, including regarding the day-to-day operation of the airport, the establishment of fees and rates to cover the costs of annual operations, regarding the maintenance of the airport and its facilities in an acceptable condition.î
An administration airport management team would be formed to "encourage development of the airports in order to maximize the use of the facilities, according to the approved area structure plan.î
The county council would be responsible to approve annual operating budgets, approve any capital budgets for improvement and major repairs, and to "provide support persons as required, within budget including management, operational and technical expertise.î
After council gave the new bylaw first reading, Reeve Beattie said: "It would be advisory as opposed to a management committee. It is a recognition that we don't believe that the current structure is operating correctly. We either have to fix what we currently have or we adopt this.
"The airports are functioning and they are meeting all the standards. We are putting over $100,000 a year into the airports and they are supposed to be self-sufficient. So how do we make them sustainable? They are not sustainable at this time.î
Management committee member Colin Minty, who is the president of the Sundre Flying Club, has called on council to defer passing the new bylaw until a "full legal review has been completed and council is confident that the county will not be libel for any expenses incurred by passing this bylaw.î
