Harbour Air has agreed to move to the new floatplane terminal at the Vancouver Convention Centre, in an undisclosed deal that NDP tourism critic Spencer Herbert believes will likely cost taxpayers money in rent subsidies.
Crown corporation PavCo owns the site and leases the water lot and terminal space to operator Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre (VHFC) via a 50-year contract.
Harbour Air resisted moving to the new facility because its executives did not believe that the terminal was safe. As part of the agreement, Harbour Air will spend its own money to construct an extension to the west side of the terminal to make that area safe.
PavCo will begin improvements to Harbour Green Park as well as construction to fully connect the seawall adjacent to the current temporary terminal that Harbour Air will continue to use until later this year.
Herbert said, “They haven’t released the terms of the agreement but, in the past, PavCo has offered tax subsidies to the two players to get them to reduce the user fees and rent.”
He added that PavCo has already spent $173,000 on safety studies and mediation.
“How much taxpayer money in subsidies is now on the table?”
No one from VHFC was available by press time.
The City of Vancouver has approved a decommissioning plan for the current temporary Harbour Air facility and has also approved a short extension to the current operating permit to support Harbour Air’s relocation to the VHFC terminal.
