Another effort to grow the city’s economy and create more jobs at the Thunder Bay Airport.
Airport CEO Ed Schmidtke spoke to Council last night asking them to create an updated tax rebate plan for aerospace businesses, offering a total of up to $180,000 per year. A previous version of the Airport Community Improvement Plan began development in 2003 and was fully in place by 2006, but portions of it offering grants expire in 2020.
City Council unanimously approved the new Airport Community Improvement Plan, which Schmidtke explains has been a big help for the airport and the local economy. “In addition to contributing to the local economy by adding jobs, labour shortages in this sector have contributed to a competitive workplace that has seen wages increase by as much as 14% around the airfield in the last 12 months.”
Red River Councillor Brian McKinnon notes the previous version of the plan was key in bringing companies on board.
“[Of] the three companies that took advantage of this, I know that two of them would not have [otherwise] come. I was told that by one of the owners, and he said ‘This was the thing that made me come here,’ because he could have gone to another municipality.”
The current plan offered up to $80,000 annually in tax rebates, and Schmidtke notes it has paved the way for $5-million worth of upgrades and development at the airport.
“The funds expended through these financial inventives have resulted in new and expanded facilities at the airport,” Schmidtke points out. “Two of the three recipients continue to grow their workforces and indicate that they expect to hire more people both in 2020 and 2021.”
