The CEO of the Charlottetown Airport is hoping to find room for negotiation after the city announced Monday it will start taxing the airport again.

For the past nine years the city has agreed not to collect its portion of property taxes from the not-for-profit airport. This year that saves the airport about $150,000.

Finance chair Cecil Villard said the city believes the airport no longer needs the tax break.
(CBC)

But as part of the city budget announcement Monday, city finance chair Cecil Villard said the city will start collecting property taxes from the airport in 2011. Based on the contract, that's the earliest the city can do so.

"We certainly didn't see this coming down the road," said airport CEO Doug Newson.

"One hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money when it comes to running an airport, so it's certainly something we did count on [having]. It will have an impact for sure."

The decision to end the tax break is part of a review of how the city supports non-profit organizations. The grants and donations policy will be rewritten and the city will reconsider what it supports. The airport is the first organization to feel the effect of the policy change.

"As I understand it, the Charlottetown Airport is doing much better today than what they were doing probably when that contract was introduced initially," said Villard.

"Based on that, is there an ongoing requirement … for the Charlottetown Airport to have this agreement? Obviously it's to their benefit, but it's lost revenue to the city itself."

Newson said he wants to meet with the city in the next couple of weeks to see if there's room for negotiation.