The new owner of an airport on Newfoundland Island owes $500,000 in property taxes – but the mayor of the town where the airport is based is shrugging off the delinquency while the local chamber of commerce leader is furious.
CBC reports Ottawa businessman Carl Dymond acquired the insolvent airport in Stephenville for $6.90 in August 2023 while assuming liabilities worth about $1 million. Dymond pledged to bring commercial flights back to the venue – now called Stephenville Dymond International Airport – while creating a new drone manufacturing plant at the site. Neither promise has come to fruition and the airport has become such a sleepy place that former car rental counters are now used for a display of animal taxidermy.
Dymond kept his word on having a new lighting system installed at the airport – although the lighting contractor Tristar Electric sued the airport last summer for $2.4 million for unpaid work. On Thursday, the airport needed the town’s assistance to clear snow from its runways when its snow removal machinery broke down, with the promise to compensate the town for the work.
But Dymond has yet to compensate Stephenville for the $500,000 property tax bill on the airport, but Mayor Tom Rose is not concerned.
“There is still property taxes owing, but I’m confident that this year that will be taken care of,” said Rose, pointing out that the town is saving $500,000 a year for not having to subsidize the airport’s operations. “In the last two years we technically saved $1 million of taxpayers money because it’s his responsibility now to make the payroll and keep the lights on and so forth.”
However, Bay St. George Chamber of Commerce President Debbie Brake-Patten, a former board member of the airport prior to Dymond’s acquisition, has questioned Dymond’s sincerity.
“I can’t listen to any more false promises,” she said. “Show me some action and then I’ll believe it. We were never supplied with a financial plan that would support what he had intended on doing.”
The mayor added Dymond was negotiating a grant in lieu of taxes, which could slash the airport’s yearly property tax bill. But Brake-Patten lamented selling the airport, which is vital for the regional air ambulance service.
“What we’ve done is lost a great piece of infrastructure for our town,” she said.
