PHOTO ILLUSTRATION/VANCOUVER SUN
Greg McDougall (left), president and CEO of Harbour Air, and Rick Baxter, president of West Coast Air.

Float plane companies operating out of Vancouver harbour said Tuesday they will be forced out of business in a matter of weeks if they don’t get a temporary new home in Coal Harbour.

The operators of West Coast Air and Harbour Air told The Vancouver Sun’s editorial board that they’re down to a single, desperate option for relocating their terminal when construction begins next month on an expansion of the Vancouver Exhibition & Convention Centre.

Earlier this week, Vancouver city staff decided that float-plane operators should get a permanent base of operations as part of a major expansion of the centre. But the airline operators need a temporary home for three years — and time is running out.

They have to vacate their existing terminal in just a few weeks, when construction crews move onto the convention centre expansion site.

Next week, Vancouver’s development permit board will decide on the airlines’ request for an interim terminal near their existing one in Coal Harbour.

The operators say they’re afraid the city will side with Coal Harbour residents who don’t want the interim venue located in front of a local children’s park.

Unless the city overrides those concerns, “it could be the end of float-plane service in Coal Harbour,” said Rick Baxter, president of West Coast Air.

A rejection of the companies’ plans could cost the province one of its integral transportation links — 300,000 passengers pass through the existing terminal each year.

That includes a daily flow of business travellers moving between corporate offices in Vancouver and provincial government offices in Victoria.

“We have to move. That’s the foregone conclusion,” said Harbour Air Seaplanes president and CEO Greg McDougall. “The bulldozers are going to be rumbling down the road fairly soon, and we have to have a place to go to.”

Until a few days ago, the airline operators were still seeking an option to take up temporary residences on the east side of Canada Place, near the SeaBus terminal.

But they’ve since learned that the Vancouver port authority has development plans for that property.

Port planning director Jim Crandles said a policy was established 10 years ago, with the agreement of the city, that float-plane operations should not be permitted along the waterfront between Canada Place and Crab Park at the foot of Main Street.

The port considered, and rejected, an application for a temporary exemption, Crandles said.

“We’ve even lost our backup plan now,” Baxter said.

The final decision on the temporary Coal Harbour venue rests with the city of Vancouver, whose development planning board will render a decision next week on an application to establish a temporary terminal 260 metres west of its current venue.

Coal Harbour residents don’t like the proposed move, said local residents association member Gerry Sieben.

He said residents are concerned that “temporary” tenancy could drag on for several additional years, or that an interim terminal could even become permanent.

They’re also concerned about noise and traffic from a terminal detracting from the ambience at a waterfront kids’ park in Coal Harbour.

He described float planes as “part of the animation of the harbour,” and said residents don’t have any fundamental concerns about the planes, just the location they’ve chosen.

They intend to approach next Tuesday’s development permit board “with guns blazing” and are already consulting a lawyer about blocking the move.

“Any time you face an organized opposition it’s certainly a concern,” McDougall said. “There’s a fairly determined group there — and that seems to be the case with any development of significance these days.”

The existing terminal is a brief walk from one of the Greater Vancouver region’s key transportation hubs, the SeaBus/SkyTrain/WestCoast Express terminal at Granville and Cordova.

McDougall said moving the float-plane terminal to a more distant location, such as on the waterfront near the Second Narrows crossing, would be too much of a deterrent for passengers.

“Our services are based on convenience. If you reduce the level of convenience you reduce the viability of [them],” he said.

With 300,000 people passing through the existing terminal each year, the waterfront float-plane operation is “one of the largest airports in the province,” according to McDougall.

Passengers travel to “hundreds” of British Columbia coastal communities, with as many as 150 flights either arriving or departing each day in peak summer season.

The services are a key transportation link for the provincial government, shuttling senior civil servants, business-community leaders and politicians from all levels of government between Victoria and Vancouver.

McDougall said the interim venue will suffice for three years until a permanent location at the convention-centre site will become available — even as latter stages of construction on the expansion proceed.

Baxter estimated the cost of establishing a temporary terminal at $1 million, with the airlines expecting to simply walk away from that investment when a permanent terminal becomes available.

PLANE FACTS:

Up to 150 float-plane flights arrive or depart from Vancouver harbour daily during the peak summer period.

Main operators:

– Harbour Air

– West Coast Air

– Baxter Aviation

Vital stats

– More than 300,000 passengers fly from Coal Harbour each year.

The three operators employ 300 people.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004