Transport Canada is floating the idea of transferring control of the Victoria Harbour airport, home to a steady stream of float-plane traffic, to local authorities.
The federal department has asked the City of Victoria to discuss taking over ownership of the busy water “aerodrome.” Victoria councillors will consider the proposal Thursday at their governance and priorities committee meeting.
Transport Canada has transferred 128 airports across the country to local authorities since the National Airports Policy was established in 1994 with a provision for divesting airport holdings. Only 18 Canadian airports — including the Victoria Harbour Aerodrome and the Port Hardy Airport — remain as Transport Canada entities.
Victoria’s is the only water-based site.
A statement from Transport Canada said the department is talking with other levels of government and various stakeholders to gauge interest in the remaining inventory of small airports.
“Transport Canada would like to determine, through this informal discussion process, whether it is still the most appropriate entity to own and operate these airports, as recent experience has shown that local interests may be better-suited to address the needs of the users,” said the statement, which emphasized the discussions are “exploratory.”
“There has been no policy change with respect to the ownership and operation of the remaining Transport Canada-owned airports and there is no process in place to transfer any of these at this time.”
Coun. Pam Madoff, Victoria’s acting mayor, said talk about what might happen with the harbour airport has been “very, very general” to date. “On Thursday, we’ll be looking at whether we want to engage in a discussion,” Madoff said. “I’m sure there will be lots of questions.”
Madoff said she was surprised when the issue arose in correspondence from Transport Canada. “It’s really process at this point, and how do we respond to the overture that’s come forward.”
The harbour airport was a touchy subject late last year, when Madoff was among those complaining that Transport Canada was not addressing issues such as noise, emissions and safety. She said at the time that such concerns had led some people to suggest the need for a local airport authority to run the facility.
Numbers presented to councillors when the complaints were made indicated that float-plane traffic had decreased in recent years. In 2011, traffic was close to 2002 levels, with 33,732 aircraft movements, including helicopters. That was down from 43,610 in 2007.
