An infrastructure project at Vancouver International Airport has been terminated due to the COVID-19 crisis, officials said Wednesday.
The Vancouver Airport Authority said it is ending the CORE Program, which is part of a multi-year, $9.1-billion expansion, to shift resources to “more immediate infrastructure and health and safety needs.”
The program, which included a new central utilities building, a geothermal heating and cooling system and a ground transportation centre, including a new parkade, was launched at a time when YVR was one of the fastest-growing airports on the continent.
“Cancelling this major infrastructure project was a difficult but necessary decision,” said Tamara Vrooman, president and CEO of the Vancouver Airport Authority. “We simply do not need the capacity this project brings for the foreseeable future and need to prioritize our resources elsewhere.”
Officials broke ground on $9.1-billion airport upgrade projects in 2018, saying they estimated YVR would welcome 32 million passengers a year by 2022.
In May, officials announced the airport authority was laying off 25 per cent of its workforce and said the airport will see eight to 15 million passengers per year over the next three years.
Work on the CORE Program is slated to wind down by the end of November and can be restarted when the need arises.
- Delivery issue: Why Canada Post ‘must change’ to avoid collapse
- A spoonful of olive oil a day could reduce risk of death from dementia: study
- Shopify stock sinks as it warns of slower growth amid tepid consumer spending
- Trans Mountain pipeline expansion will boost Canadian oil prices ‘for years’: MEG Energy
Comments