Sarnia council has approved establishing a Municipal Services Corporation (MSC) to help move Chris Hadfield Airport forward, but not everyone was on board.
City/County Councillor Chrissy McRoberts, who recently toured St. Thomas Airport, felt having a chief executive officer alone -- answering to city council -- would be sufficient.
"[St. Thomas is] doing a lot of things with just five staff," McRoberts said. "I'm lost when the MSC comes into this. Why can we not just follow that one model where we put out [a job posting] nationally for somebody to come along and run our airport and have the five [staff], because St. Thomas is amazing."
Councillor Terry Burrell felt the MSC would become an entity unto itself.
"It becomes a board of directors that are between council and the operation of whatever they're doing... which I don't find helpful," Burrell said.
Burrell agreed with McRoberts, that council could act as the board of directors of the operation.
"Certainly when we're trying to get it going, I think it's better to leave it in the hands of council and have our staff advise us as we go along," he added.
But, City/County Councillor Brian White had no concerns about developing an MSC.
"It shouldn't be any surprise that we're not the most nimble body when it comes to making decisions," White said. "It's been a challenging couple of terms for those of us who've been around. Sometimes the seemingly innocuous decisions generate the most heat and do cause some trepidation in our decision making."
White agreed with a point made by Mayor Mike Bradley that the group should be A-political.
"When we're talking about running something like this as a business -- with the efficiency and the opportunity to generate revenue, to think outside the box, to be creative and innovative -- that's not my expertise," he said. "I'd much rather recruit people at a very high level and put my trust in them and see the returns of that separation."
Burrell and McRoberts voted against the recommendation. Bill Dennis was absent.
Council unanimously agreed to extend the airport subsidy to June 30, 2027 and keep Scottsdale Aviation as the airport's operator for the next two years.
Explorer Solutions -- the consultant tasked with providing the recommendations to council -- plans to submit its interim progress report to the city on July 24, 2025 and its final implementation plan on August 15, 2025.