Westerners’ wonder; is COPA an Eastern organization?

Of course it is. It was formed decades ago in Ottawa and it’s a darn good thing it was for us westerners that it was.

Moreover, the head office has remained in Ottawa because that is where our government and senior Transport Canada’s personnel are based. Our staff is able to walk a short distance to the offices of senior bureaucrats and attend the myriad of important policy making meetings to protect the interests of all Canadian pilots and owners. 

Recently, I was one of many recipients of an email wherein a few dissatisfied individuals were attempting to lay blame for high hangar taxes in Victoria on that “eastern” organization, COPA. 

Friends, let me tell you that sort of observation offends me for a number of reasons. I will address most of my general observations on the province of British Columbia and Yukon Territory as those are the areas I represent as a COPA Director.

THE UNINFORMED

Statements that COPA has done almost nothing for westerners are the disgruntled ranting of those who are not informed or haven’t taken the time to read the data constantly provided for the membership in our monthly newspaper. (Perhaps they aren’t even members and that would explain their being uninformed).

WESTERN DIRECTORS

Secondly, statements that COPA does far more for easterners discredits the western directors who have volunteered thousands of hours of their time to work on behalf of COPA members and inform them of activities and trends.

Recently, B.C./Yukon Directors Terry Wilshire and myself attended the BCAC meetings relating to the security set up for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics in B.C. Incidentally, COPA’s President and CEO, Kevin Psutka flew out from Ottawa to provide support.

When those meetings were over we were duking it out with NavCan to overcome significant airspace restrictions in Victoria and Vancouver and once again Mr. Psutka was with us visiting local COPA Flights with invitations to other aviation groups to advise them of proposed changes. 

We then attended the prime meetings with NavCan at their Pacific Region Control Centre where our arguments were well received and respected and the restrictions were rolled back (Likely to be fought another day by western COPA representatives on behalf of the membership).

Moreover, to suggest westerners were not well represented by their directors is to besmirch the exceptional efforts Tony Swain invested for the membership. Tony has written a detailed column for more than a decade that appraised members of all of the activities that affected our aviation freedom on the west coast. 

He and his wife, “The Mary” devoted a great deal of their time to travelling around the region supporting COPA’s goals and apprising others of threats and actions. 

Members need to remember that the approximately 20 regional directors are not paid but give freely of their time to work for the benefit of the membership. In my opinion as a rather broadly experienced aviator, we are exceedingly lucky as an organization to have the exceptional group directing this not-for-profit organization.

It should also be noted that the regional directors are not “work horses” who work day and night to accomplish the goals that you feel are necessary to your needs. We are a central focus for our regions. Members need to communicate their concerns to us because we can’t be “all seeing.” It is then our task to communicate with our President to apprise him of the issues. These are then researched and if immediate action can be taken, results are imminent. 

If special action funds are needed the board of directors needs to examine the details and rule on funding. We are guided by our By-laws. This creates a level playing ground that is fair for everyone.

That said, there is nothing to stop you from acting on your own behalf to protect your own interests. We need to work as a team. COPA is a central focus. 

REPRESENTATION

COPA is similar to the government(s) of Canada. Representation is based on membership population. Yes, Ontario has more directors; however, it has more than three times the population of B.C. So in fact, we westerners have more representatives on the board per capita than Ontario.

Moreover, on the executive comprised of the Chairman of the Board, Secretary, Treasurer, Western Vice-Chair, Eastern Vice-Chair and President/CEO, half of all of the positions are filled with westerners. Considering Mr. Psutka must be based in Ottawa and the Eastern Vice-Chair must be from the east, there are twice as many westerners on the board as there are easterners. If anyone could or should complain, it should be the easterners – and they aren’t!

TIT FOR TAT

In the many years I have served on the board of directors (and now executive) I have never heard any of the eastern directors say a disparaging word about westerners. For that matter, I have never heard a western director make a negative comment about an easterner. 

What I’m saying is that we all work together as one and are almost always unanimous on our decisions. Essentially, the attitude that prevails is that whatever is good for Canadian aviation is good for all Canadian aviators. There is no East or West in the decision making. 

Truth to tell, and it’s only by coincidence, the West has benefited from more funding for court cases and special action funding simply because some important precedents needed to be established in the west. So, the easterners don’t owe us anything, we owe them!

Incidentally, lest our eastern friends feel cheated by these facts, let us remember the beneficial balance is liquid and flows back and forth. The important conclusion to draw here is that where ever aviation needs support, COPA will bring its resources and expertise to bear to accomplish our mutual goals.

HANGAR TAX ISSUE

COPA has invested a great deal of effort and funding in the battle to overcome commercial tax rates on hangars. There have been successes in Ontario.

COPA has also enlisted the services of law firms – yes, in B.C. to advise us of a course of action on several fronts and occasions and have been told, things are different here and that we could not go forward with any chance of success.

We will continue to support groups who wish to form the pointy end of the spear to wage an assault on municipalities that commercially tax recreational hangars and Kevin Psutka recently provided considerable data on the work that has been done, to the Victoria area hangar owners. 

However, readers must be aware that COPA is most effective at the federal level and this battle isn’t even provincial, it’s municipal. These local agencies are empowered by the voters to set mill rates and taxation levels and one must remember that there are very few hangar owners amongst voters. 

It also doesn’t help that many hangars are being used as commercial operations because they are perceived as being very inexpensive warehouses or factories by non-aviation entities. Perhaps the greatest folly is that of Airport Authorities allowing non-aviation operations on their airports. Of course they are challenged in their own right by very high fees administered against them by the government of Canada. 

So, there you have it, the hangar taxation issue is not an easy one to solve. If it were, COPA would have been successful on this task years ago.

So my fellow westerners, ask not for whom COPA works. It works for you. 

Ken is a director on the COPA Board. He lives in Victoria, B.C. and provides services internationally in advanced training, expert witness, flight test and aircraft sales. He has logged more than 15,000 hours on 375 types of fixed wing and rotary aircraft. Soaring his Diamond Xtreme is what he does for pleasure.