City allocates $500K to airport authority in effort to restore flights to U.S.
Motion was passed at Monday night's city council meeting
Regina Mayor Michael Fougere says the reported tax exemption for the Regina Airport Authority is actually an incentive.
A motion was passed at Monday night's city council meeting to allocate more than $500,000 a year to the airport authority with hopes that a U.S. airline would make a hub in Regina.
"It's an incentive-based, performance-based, it is not again an open-ended allocation of money so we as council unanimously agreed this is a great idea." Fougere said.
Fougere said there has been a "cry throughout the community" to restore flights to the U.S. from Regina.
Listen to Mayor Michael Fougere's interview with the Morning Edition here:
"It's important as a capital city, a major city of Saskatchewan, to have a direct flight to the U.S. for so many reasons of job creation, investment, tourism — these are all very, very important issues." Fougere said.
He said $350,000 will be from the city while the rest of the funds are taxes from the school board and libraries.
"We just think it is a good investment and we will find a way to allocate the money." Fougere said.