Feds searched for airport funding
HALIFAX — Months before an application would even be submitted, Infrastructure’s Canada’s deputy minister directed staff to shop around for a program under which the federal government could fund an airport for Cabot Links.
A Saltwire Network access to information request for internal government emails show a high level push to find a way for taxpayers to build an airport long sought after by a private company on the outskirts of Inverness.
On April 5 the Cape Breton Island Airport Community Interest Company was registered with the province.
Its president was listed as Ben Cowan-Dewar, co-owner of the Cabot Links golf course.
Though Infrastructure Canada wouldn’t receiving a proposal for the airport until June, four days after Cowan-Dewar registered Cape Breton Island Community Interest Company, the federal department’s top bureaucrat emailed staff at 6:25 p.m. about finding a way to fund it.
“Hi, the airport that keeps coming back in Cape Breton — thought it was eligible under (New Building Canada Fund) — it is also eligible under (Infrastructure Bilateral Agreements)?” Kelly Gillis, the department’s deputy minister wrote.
The department’s director, Syed Fariya, replied an hour later, “I’m not sure what airport this is referring to. I don’t recall an airport business case in Cape Breton ...”
The next morning Infrastructure Canada analyst Spencer Olson responded to the deputy minister’s request.
“I can’t seem to find anything in our files but there were discussions over the years about an Inverness Airport and a Margaree Airport, both located on Cape Breton Island in close proximity to one another. Under (New Building Canada Fund), airports needed to have scheduled passenger traffic, which make these projects ineligible. This condition was subsequently removed from the terms and conditions. These airports could be eligible under the Rural and Northern Infrastructure stream of (the Investing in Canada Plan).”
Cabot Links has long sought a airport closer to its golf course on Cape Breton’s west coast.
The existing Allan J MacEachen airport outside Port Hawkesbury is over an hour drive away from the worldrenowned golf course in Inverness. Well over half its annual traffic is composed of charter flights carrying wealthy golfers heading for Cabot Links.
Other courses, like at the Fox Harbour Resort opened by Tim Hortons co-founder Ron Joyce, have their own airports for private jets. But the tax payer didn’t foot the bill for that airport.
Before word of potential taxpayer support for a third airport in Cape Breton was made public by Antigonish County journalist Andrew MacDonald, discussion continued in Ottawa on which infrastructure fund it could be eligible under.
According to public comments by Premier Stephen McNeil made after news broke, the federal government asked Nova Scotia to submit an application.
That dovetails with an email sent by Diane Saurette, executive director of finance and capital infrastructure for the provincial government, in May.
“... I’m trying to understand the eligibility requirements needed for the Inverness airport related to governance and of course business structure,” she wrote to staff at Infrastructure Canada. “For instance, would a for profit established community interest company be eligible?”
A response by Spencer Olson at Infrastructure Canada puts into perspective why CowanDewar created a “community interest company” for the airport and the website built to promote the project touted the potential for commercial scheduled flights.
Under the rural and northern infrastructure funding stream on which the federal government was directing the province to apply, airports aren’t eligible if they are restricted to private planes.
Private airports are only eligible for funding up to 25 per cent of the total project costs. But if they are meant to either turn a profit or increase the value of a business, such as Cabot Links, that money has to be repaid.
On May 26, deputy minister Gillis emailed staff again asking to see if they had received Nova Scotia’s application yet.
Then on June 14 she wrote again to staff “Hi - being told we got it. Please let me know if any issues. TKS.”
The proposal was for an $18-million airport paid for by the federal and provincial governments that included a 6,000 foot runway, taxi way and terminal building to be owned by the as yet unestablished federally registered non-profit Cape Breton Island Airport Corporation.
“The project outcome is improved and more reliable air infrastructure ... ” reads the justification for the investment with the rest of the sentence redacted.
With word of the proposed airport out and public opposition growing on June 25 federal minister of Rural Economic Development Bernadette Jordan announced the project had been canned.
“Projects submitted under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, Rural and Northern Communities Infrastructure Stream (RNIS), must improve the quality of life in those communities by responding to rural and northern specific needs,” read a statement put out by Jordan’s office. “There is not enough information at this time to demonstrate how this project will respond to Cape Breton’s needs.”