British Columbia’s Transportation and Transit Minister Mike Farnworth discussed lobbying the federal government for an airport to be built in South Surrey’s Campbell Heights.
Scott Wheatley, executive director of the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce, raised the subject during a Q&A with the minister March 18 at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel, where Farnworth was a guest speaker focusing on transportation and networks and infrastructure for Surrey, White Rock and the surrounding region.
Wheatley told Farnworth chamber members are asking for a regional airport.
“What’s it going to take – I just want to be the first one to profit – what’s it going to take to get a regional airport down in the Campbell Heights area so I can get some movie studios built?” Wheatley asked.
Farnworth replied that airports are under federal jurisdiction.
“I’m not trying to push it aside, but that is the reality,” he said. “So I think it would be a case of the Province working with the federal government to say ‘hey, we think there’s an opportunity here for an airport.’ I think there’s a number of things that would have to be taken into account.”
Farnworth noted Langley and Pitt Meadows have airports.
“I think the question would be, would those be the ones or would you be looking at something brand new? As a provincial minister, to advance this I would have to have a better understanding of exactly the location and where, and then the size and things like that, ideally in the Campbell Heights area.”
He asked Wheatley to send him his “idea.”
“Send it to me, then I am in a position to be able to start to talk with the feds and see if there’s some interest and what it would take to move things further.”