Genesis Flight College wants to keep its access to the runways.
“We’re 100 per cent supportive of the town of Collingwood and the Collingwood Regional Airport, and, for that matter, the sale of the airport,” said David Gascoine, the owner of the flight college and a partner in Collingwood Aviation Partners Ltd. (CAP), the group that owns the land where the flight college is situated.
“The trouble we’re having here is that we entered into an operating agreement to get access to the airport,” said Gascoine, adding what has transpired in the sale of the airport to Winterland Developments Ltd. is not what the town and CAP originally agreed upon.
According to Gascoine, Winterland would like a new agreement that would allow access as usual, but would also allow Winterland to cut off access to the airport with 60-days notice.
“To put our access at risk eliminates our ability to invest, and it puts all our investment to date at risk,” said Gascoine.
Without access to a runway, there’s no flight college.
CAP has filed a civil suit against the Town of Collingwood and Winterland in the hopes of obtaining a court order that would allow them to keep the previous operating agreement between the town of Collingwood and CAP in place.
Gascoine sent CollingwoodToday a copy of the operating agreement and he refers to it in the application for a civil suit submitted to a Toronto court house.
The original agreement, signed by the town and CAP on June 16, 2014, states the owner (CAP) and its tenants shall have full access to the Collingwood Regional Airport’s runway systems and other facilities and services necessary for flight operation, across airport lands, on internal roadways and from the Township road on a 24-hours per day/365 days per year basis.
Gascoine said a formal, permanent agreement with the town for the airport was a condition of sale for the CAP property, which is about six acres adjacent to the existing Collingwood Regional Airport. His claim, is the town remains liable for the terms of the agreement because of one clause included in the agreement.
“This agreement shall extend to and be binding upon the parties and their respective successors and assigns in title, provided however, all successors and assigns in title shall agree pursuant to a written assumption agreement to be bound by the terms and provisions of this agreement and to perform all of the obligations and covenants of the assignor,” states the agreement.
CAP is not looking to sue the town for money, the partners are looking for a ruling from the courts on whether the agreement should still stand under the airport’s potential new ownership and whether or not the town is responsible to make sure the new owners stick to the agreement. CAP is also suing for the cost of court proceedings.
In the original 2014 document, there’s also a clause stating the town “covenants” to compensate the owner (CAP) for all actions, suits, claims, damages, costs and liability arising out of breech, violation or non performance of any town covenant, condition and agreement contained in the operating agreement.
The town did not respond to email questions on the court documents filed or the agreement between CAP and the town, except to say there would be an in-camera session tonight (Nov. 26 at 5:30 p.m.) with a possible "rise and report" public session to follow where there may be a decision made.
The latest deadline for the close of the Collingwood Airport sale is Nov. 29.
The town did send CAP two letters, according to Gascoine and the court documents he filed on Nov. 16. The first, sent Oct. 25 was to notify CAP the town would be concluding its sale to Winterland and would not be assigning the agreement for access to Winterland.
On Nov. 13, another letter from the town, this time from its legal team, confirmed Winterland would not be accepting the agreement.
According to Gascoine, CAP has had talks with Winterland regarding the sale and has agreed to changes in security and other protocols.
Gascoine said Genesis Flight College currently employs about 15 people and has 50 students enrolled. Students can earn a commercial pilot’s licence through Genesis Flight College, where the primary business caters to individuals who would like to become career pilots.
“We would like nothing more than to see this not go to court,” said Gascoine. “We just want our existing agreement to be honoured.”
He said if the agreement is not upheld by the Ontario courts, the “natural follow-up” would be to sue the town for loss of revenue and investment caused by the college losing permanent access to the runways.
“I’m totally shocked we’re in the spot we’re in,” said Gascoine. “We want to see the best outcome for all parties, we just can’t go forward in this with this risk over our heads.”
