Burton wants to pull Collingwood airport support
Deputy Mayor Barry Burton wants to give up Clearview Township’s seat on the Collingwood Regional Airport municipal services board and revoke its financial support.
Burton, who is the airport representative for Clearview, proposed the plan to fellow council members after it was announced the Town of Collingwood was putting its airport up for sale.
The airport is located in Clearview Township and is seen as a regional asset, therefore Clearview contributes $25,000 each year toward its operation. Wasaga Beach also contributes to the airport and the three municipalities have seats on the services board.
Burton’s proposal was tabled Oct. 16 as new business, taking councillors by surprise. The motion was deferred until the next meeting to give councillors time to consider their positions on the matter.
Burton said the decision also took board members by surprise. They learned about the decision to sell through the media.
“They are putting out an RFP, which means it’s open to the private sector so I don’t think we should be spending Clearview tax dollars to support something that’s only going to benefit Collingwood, because they are going to put it up for sale,” said Burton.
He said he would rather see the airport remain in public ownership.
“We invested a lot of money in defending the wind turbines, along with Simcoe County, Collingwood and the other organizations, but we put a lot of money in,” said Burton. “We have been asking for access to the airport for the development of the Clearview Aviation Business Park and they kept delaying us, saying nothing would be decided until the windmill issue was solved. The issue was solved and they put it up for public auction. Why would we want to put money toward something that is going to go into the hands of the private sector?”
He said he also wants to give up Clearview’s seat because the board will have no say regarding the sale.
“Clearview will have no input as to what offer Collingwood decides to accept,” said Burton… “At the end of the day, it is their airport and they can sell it if that’s what they want to do.”
He said the sale will delay the development of the Clearview Aviation Business Park by at least a year, because they still need access.
“It could, more than likely, end up in the private sector and I am concerned that if it does, how that will affect our ability to get access for development,” said Burton.
He would not comment on whether or not Clearview Township would be interested in bidding on the airport.
