SUMMING IT UP: Grand Forks City Council
By Mona Mattei
Last week’s meeting of Grand Forks city council was a ‘strictly business’ short meeting with little controversy. Key items for the meeting were: a report back from staff on potential models for corporate tax incentives from comparisons of other similar size cities which was sent to the economic development committee for review; and a late item to the agenda from the mayor of Castlegar requesting the city’s support for Westjet to operate from their airport.
“This is excellent for the region, we have to look at everything regionally,” said councillor Cher Wyers, a long-time advocate for the development of the Grand Forks airport. “This is an opportunity that mayor Dooley (Nelson) and mayor Chernoff (Castlegar) will be going to meet with Westjet in Calgary.”
Chernoff (see article Westjet bid) has been soliciting support from businesses and local area communities to encourage Westjet to expand their services into Castlegar. This would provide competition for Air Canada, and likely open up opportunities for local businesses to engage with larger areas with more ease.
Castlegar mayor Lawrence Chernoff, Nelson mayor John Dooley, city manager John Malcolm and former MP (and air traffic controller) Jim Gouk will be among the delegates heading to Calgary to meet with WestJet June 27 and 28, although Chernoff said they’re hoping to round out the delegates with a representative from the business community.
“It’s all about economic development – for the whole region,” he said. “For the smaller communities of B.C., I think it would be a great asset to have WestJet flying here.”
Council approved the motion to provide a letter of support for the airport service.
With files from Kyra Hogan.
Watch the entire meeting video above at GFTVCA, by Les Johnson!
