TPA ignores the Tripartite Agreement
Mark McQueen, TPA Chair, twice yesterday - in the course of the TPA's annual general meeting, and later, to the press - stated that the tripartite agreement provides for fines for breach of curfew, specifically citing the amount of $5,000.
He's wrong. Surely he has by now read the agreement: there is a mention of a $5,000 fine (in 1981 dollars) that the TPA is OBLIGED to levy if an aircraft that is within the definition of "aircraft generating excessive noise" lands at the Island Airport.
The Q400 is within that definition, as the TPA admitted last February. But it has, to our knowledge, failed to ever levy THAT fine on Porter.
The curfew is addressed by a simple prohibition. It is not to be breached - except for "medical evacuation and other emergencies". A stable patient is not an emergency, and organ transplants are not within that exemption. Neither are helicopters returning to base after the emergency is over.
The prohibition is regularly ignored. No wonder the community is distressed. That is why the community looks to the City to actually begin to enforce the agreement, as the TPA will clearly not do so on its own.
Brian Iler, chair
CommunityAIR
He's wrong. Surely he has by now read the agreement: there is a mention of a $5,000 fine (in 1981 dollars) that the TPA is OBLIGED to levy if an aircraft that is within the definition of "aircraft generating excessive noise" lands at the Island Airport.
The Q400 is within that definition, as the TPA admitted last February. But it has, to our knowledge, failed to ever levy THAT fine on Porter.
The curfew is addressed by a simple prohibition. It is not to be breached - except for "medical evacuation and other emergencies". A stable patient is not an emergency, and organ transplants are not within that exemption. Neither are helicopters returning to base after the emergency is over.
The prohibition is regularly ignored. No wonder the community is distressed. That is why the community looks to the City to actually begin to enforce the agreement, as the TPA will clearly not do so on its own.
Brian Iler, chair
CommunityAIR
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