ISN'T BUREAUCRACY WONDERFULL.. IF PRIVATE BUSINESS OPERATED THAT WAY THEY WOULD BE BROKE.WHY CAN'T POLITICIANS UNDERSTAND THAT A TIME LINE RELATES TO INCOME AND SURVIVAL. GET ON WITH THE PROJECT BEFORE PLANES BECOME OBSOLETE.

It's called due diligence and the politicians' dithering, waffling and stalling shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone any more.

There is more money needed for some Olympics or 100 Leopard tanks, $3.4 billion for 4 new military airplanes??? No problem, we'll have it ready for you today!

Of course, all government activity always grinds to a halt in anticipation of a long weekend and after the long weekend it takes days to get it up to *speed* again!

And with every day that the project is delayed the cost for labour and material keeps rising...

The Treasury Board has approved it, os the rest will follow ... eventually .... this is summer, and the lady who proofreads the letter is on a three week vacation.

As far as the Leopard tanks go ... the same thing there ... we hear when there is some sort of approval, perhaps even not Treasury Board since we do not build Leopard Tanks or any parts for them here so we do not follow that story closely. However, I am sure once Treasury Board approves that, the companies involved also do not get written apporval for some time .... the guy who logs the approval letter into the system may be on a 4 week French immersion course refresher in Paris.

;-)

Oh, how true it is, Owl.
metalman.

I suspect the delay is due to it not being milked enough for political kudos yet. Announce it first when being considered, announce it again when funding is approved, announce it again when confirmation of approval is sent (that would be September or so), announce it again when a cheque is sent and tenders are called, and make a grand announcement when the project starts, and a final announcement when it is finished and formally opened by some MP and MLA.

Marketing Politics 101

Tell them what you are going to do,
tell them again.

Then do it..

Then tell them again what was done.

"when it is finished and formally opened by some MP and MLA"

They will, of course, be landing in an airbus or something like that to take full advantge of the longer runway.

Just because the Airport Authority came up with a dubious idea on expanding the Airport and getting a few planes to come here instead of Anchorage, and hopefully someday to build a distribution warehouse, doesnt mean that the different levels of Government should fall all over themselves to give them money.

I'm surprised they got any money at all. If these Politicians wernt looking for re-election, and the beetles didnt raise H with the forests they wouldnt have been given the money.

Remember it wasnt that long ago that the big **target date** was to complete the Airport Runway Expansion to be ready when the Prince Rupert Container Terminal was completed. Well come October the Containers from Rupert will be rolling through Prince George on their way to the US Midwest, and local pulp and paper which used to be railed or trucked to Vancouver for container loading will be loaded here and sent to Prince Rupert. All this will take place without the **Great** Airport Runway Expansion. Which indicates to me that the Expansion has little or nothing to do with the Prince Rupert Container Terminal.

It doesnt matter a whit if it is built this year or next year, because it is a long shot at best to generate any business in this area.

I suspect that the move that is afoot to get the 900 Hectares West of the Airport out of the ALR, is more about the possibility of Highway 16 going through there than it is about the runway expansion, or warehouse and distribution business.

"It doesnt matter a whit if it is built this year or next year, because it is a long shot at best to generate any business in this area."

It most certainly does matter. In business, one has to be ready to do business when business is ready to be done. If one is not ready, one might as well fold up since others will have provided the opportunity, either better or worse, in another fashion. Anchorage may noit even factor into what is going on.

Do you know what MOUs may or may not have been signed or agreed to in another fashion? I doubt it. The Board does and I am assuming they are managing their risks accordingly.

Well said Owl. Virtually every business out there had to take some risk, and put up some cold hard cash before they earned their first dollar, and most of them had to sweat it out for years before their books started to show any numbers in the "black".
Also, virtually none of these businesses started out by "surveying" their competitors to see if they should set up a competitive enterprise beside them! Obviously, naysayers like Palopu seem to think this is the way to go, since he is forever rattling off the opinions of the boys in Anchorage who of course, (duhh), say there is no need to build a facility in Prince George to "take away" some of their prosperous little niche in this lucrative market. That'd make as much sense as Walmart going over to Kresge's or Superstore, and asking them if maybe they should build a store here too.
The bottom line is this: ---- if we do not have a runway that can handle a certain size aircraft, -- virtually no-one will ever land that type of aircraft here !! Nor will we EVER even show up on the radar as a potential business opportunity with those who need this type of service, if we dither away every opportunity we've had to get ourselves ready for these coming opportunities.
Another point less mentioned here, is that a longer runway should be a SAFER runway, because it could potentially give a pilot more room to abort a takeoff in the event of trouble, or get an aircraft stopped if the brakes failed, or whatever. It also can provide emergency landing capabilities for ALL types of aircraft flying over, or near us.
If even just ONE life is saved someday, due to this longer runway, every dollar invested would be returned a hundred-fold.

See, this so called Government are having there doubts...they just don't know how to tell us yet!

Waffle waffle waffle gripe gripe gripe...isn't this a great Country where we can get upset about things like:
-building new infrastructure
-improving our City
-moving forward to meet future demands, future possibilities, future opportunities etc.
-a small delay in millions of dollars available in our vibrant economy
-having leaders with enough balls to make progressive decisions even though the arm chair critics will shoot them down at every possible opportunity.

It's nice to have the luxury of being upset by these so called problems!!

I liked the first comment: "GET ON WITH THE PROJECT BEFORE PLANES BECOME OBSOLETE."

I am also wondering if other B.C. airports who have lengthened their runways or are in the process of doing so ran into the same dithering.

All the business studies have been done and redone, the federal money was already handed over in a grand ceremony (and later a stop was put to the cheque?), all other conditions have been fulfilled - so, let us get on with it "BEFORE PLANES BECOME OBSOLETE."

20 years down the road might see it done. Red tape! but 20 years later the price will have doubled or tripled, might as well cancel now and get it over with.

Since when did the Airport Authority become a business.???? There terms of reference say that they are non-profit. The money from the Airport Improvement Fees goes into Airport Improvement.

The 11 Million from the Northern Trust Loan, and the 11 Million from the Feds and Province, are all Taxpayers Dollars.

Where do you people get the impression that this is a business venture. The Authority itself hopes to recoup its expenses over a 20 year period. At best we could call this a Government Venture, but you sure as hell cant call it a business venture, when the only money being spent is taxpayers dollars.

$33 Million dollars could go a long way to replanting the forest, attracting doctors to outlying areas, or some other venture that would in fact produce some results, rather than vague references to

(A) 10 Minute diviation between Pr George and Anchorage.
(b) Pr George is in the direct path of the slip stream
(c) Anchorage is congested and cant handle anymore business
(d) Maybe some company will build a warehouse and distribution centre.

I need more than these vague references to convince me this is a viable operation.

Palopu- face it. The days of the wooden sidewalks and pony express are over. You can stay behind if you want, but I would rather 'be on the plane' for this one.

"The money from the Airport Improvement Fees goes into Airport Improvement."

Well, at least they are doing what they are supposed to be doing.

"(A) 10 Minute deviation between Pr George and Anchorage."

Is it only a ten minute difference between Prince George and Anchorage?

Are we talking flight time for a cargo plane?

Thats the number that has been thrown out by the Airport People. A 10 minute deviation between Pr George and Anchorage for Cargo Planes. I assume that the 10 Minutes are in Prince Georges favour.

Insofar as the Jet Stream goes, as far as I know it goes in one direction. So if it is in your favour flying to Asia, then it is against you coming back. That is why Anchorage is used over Coastal Places like Vancouver, San Fran, Seattle, etc; More air miles over water coming back means more fuel and less cargo.

This is exhausting. On behalf of the residential property owners in the area, who are riding along on this roller-coaster, we are all tired and confused. Especially those of us who don't want to be displaced from the homes we love. Empty offers from the airport manager and being told that our properties which they need to acquire, are only of residential value even though we all know that there will be commercial development once the airport gets rid of us. This mess is affecting so many people and now we are also going to have to consult lawyers, etc., just to protect our own interests from the fat cat who is feeding the little people in the area tasteless cheese.

"Since when did the Airport Authority become a business.???? There terms of reference say that they are non-profit."

The airport may be a non-profit organization. That means they do not provide any moneys they make to shareholders. Other than that, they are a business and there are a ton of such businesses around. They are certainly not a charity. The airport had better be run in a business like fashion whether by some government ministry or authority or a non-profit society.

Just a reminder .... go back to a dictionary and find the word "business" and asociated words such as "commercial activities", "commerce", etc. and you will likely not find any defintion that states the activities under those categories have to be done for profit or by a for-profit organization ....

Again, let us remember word definitions and not make up our own when it suit us.

Owl. You can call a group of people set up by various levels of Government who are then leased the Airport Facilities, and given the right to tax air travellers a business if you wish. The fact of the matter is they are nothing more than a group of people spending taxpayers money.

The big scam for those Airport Authoritys that actually make money such as Calgary, Saskatoon, Vancouver, is to take any excess revenue over expenses and put it into investments. I havent checked them out lately but seems to me the Calgary Authority has in excess of $200 Million in investments. Vancouver would have more and Saskatoon a like amount.

You would think that at the very least they would have reduced the Airport Improvement Fees, rather that sock the money away to be looked after by their buddies, but no, fat chance.

The Government originally planned to turn these Airports over to legitimate business's however they knew that they would not be viable operations, that would pay the hundreds of millions in lease money, because private business would have had difficutly taxing airline travellers. At the end of the day they opted for the Airport Authority route. The one Airport that did go private Ft St John, actually assess's a trespassing fee, because it cannot assess an Airport Improvement Fee.

Call it a business's if you want. I call it a Federal Government Scam.

"The fact of the matter is they are nothing more than a group of people spending taxpayers money."

Very true, since most of us are taxpayers. However, they are investing part of the actual tax money I send to Ottawa. The nice thing about it is that they are investing it here.

In addition to that, they are investing the user fees I pay each time I and others fly so that I can leave and come back to an airport that does not look like a third world airport or an airport in some God forsaken northern community like Watson Lake.

On top of that, the airfare I pay to the airlines I fly go to paying landing fees and rental fees for their facilities at the airport.

The money I plug the parking meters with and the money I spend on leaving a car there on occasion goes to paying for that service. The other service providers at the airport alos pay rental fees for the facilities they use.

In return, the airport does its best to improve its services, increase its revenues through actual increase in use and pays people and service providers which help to maintain the facilities, whether through direct jobs or indirect jobs.

It is a commercial enterprise through and through, and, as a taxpayer, I am happy to invest in a facility such as that in my own community.

As for investing in the Toronto International airport, well, that is another matter, but, I suppose, some of my tax money goes to paying for that as well.

With any luck, the airport will succeed and my user fees and or the tax portion I am paying for the airport will be reduced. Those are the pitfalls of an investor.

Then there is the whole other part of the equation. Should the airport succeed, it will have spin-off economic activities which not only impact the airport, but the remainder of the City.

Then again, that is not very good since we will require additional roads, additional city services, additional maintenance costs, expanded libraries, art galleries, performing art centres, more schools, more tax supported transit capacity ….

Good Lord. I think I finally see your point Palopu. Watson Lake, here I come.

"The Government originally planned to turn these Airports over to legitimate business's"

???? .. like Enron??? like Canfor who threatens to shut down a plant and then gets a break on the cost of timber? Like YRB? Like the company that will operate the UNBC Sportsplex? Like the paving companies that harass the residential neighbours?

What business is a legitimate business? They all pig out from the same trough. Us!! Whether through taxation, through indirect taxation, through user fees, through purchasing their products, through sitting on operations advisory committees as volunteers, they do the best they can to get us much of our money as they can. That is their purpose in life …. feed … feed …. feed.

Once one understands that simple notion, one can quickly move on with the more important things in life rather than bitchin’ about left versus right, capitalism versus socialism, public enterprise versus private enterprise, union versus non-union, etc. etc. Without those blinders on, the world looks quite different and one can finally look at output instead of getting hung up on input.

I am sorry, as I have often said in the past, as long as the wealth is spent in this country, in this province, in this town, I am happy and I do not buy your concerns.

As soon as people leave with the money and spend it to buy goods and services in foreign countries, then I start to worry about how much we are spending.