Castlegar developing long-term economic strategy that includes the airport lands

Castlegar wants to improve the air service to the city

The City of Castlegar is working with West Kootenay Regional Airport to improve air service to the West Kootenays. — Photo courtesy of City of Castlegar

The future of economic development in the Castlegar area hinges on communication and partnership between the city, its citizens, the local chamber of commerce and businesses, large and small. Infrastructure and core community projects are number one for Castlegar Mayor Lawrence Chernoff. He points to the Millennium Park Natural Swimming Ponds and Sculpturewalk as two key projects completed by the city and the planned development of West Kootenay Centre as examples of what can be done to enhance the community and the economy.

“When I look to the coming years, our focus is on economic development,” said Chernoff.

He's bringing together all levels of government, local businesses and stakeholders from the surrounding area to conduct a study to determine economic development needs.

Once the partnerships are formed, “it’s all about communication,” said Chernoff. His goal is to improve communication between the business community, the Castlegar and District Chamber of Commerce, residents and the city council.

An integral part of economic development is the 15 hectares (37 acres) of fully serviced, flat, city-owned land adjacent to the West Kootenay Regional Airport, which is called the West Kootenay Centre. The city is trying to attract a big box retailer as an anchor tenant that would then pull in additional retail and professional services. This project will help sustain the local economy and attract new businesses.

The city is also working with Nav Canada, Transport Canada and Air Canada to improve air service to Castlegar. These efforts are aimed at establishing a Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedure “to try and improve the limits on how we get in and out of Castlegar on a regular basis,” said Chernoff. During winter, there are times when the airport is closed due to fog and stormy weather.

The Nav Canada publication Wings (July/Aug 2010) reports the RNP “is revolutionizing the way instrument approaches are designed and carried out, most notably in areas of hazardous terrain.” RNP allows landings and takeoffs “to quite literally curve around terrain and obstacles.” This would make the Castlegar airport far more accessible even during inclement weather.

According to Gerry Rempel, manager of the West Kootenay Regional Airport, the “RNP system is presently in the design stage and hopefully will be completed in the next couple months.” He added, “It’s an approach system that will provide aircraft equipped for it to come into the airport at a significantly lower altitude.” This will significantly improve the number of landings during winter months, which will benefit local travellers and the economy.

For Chernoff, getting the airport to work at the highest capacity is “a huge part of our economics in this community and surrounding communities because air service really provides that link on a daily basis to the rest of the world.”

Being connected to the world is an important part of the economic development taking place in Castlegar and the West Kootenay.