Smith: Use gaming cash for arena.
Wildrose leader looks to score points with arena-funding plan
Picking a fight with Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel in the last election was a big mistake and hurt her party’s fortunes in the city, said Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith.
Smith also said she’s hoping a proposal to raise money for new arenas in Edmonton and Calgary will help build a better relationship with Edmonton voters who did not elect a single Wildrose candidate in the April election.
The party is still working out details of the proposal “on a gaming model” with details to be released in January, she said, adding that, “maybe that will improve my relations with the mayor.”
“If I could have done anything differently, I would have set off a better relationship with the mayor (Mandel) right from the beginning,” Smith told the Journal editorial board.
“It’s never good to pick a fight with a big-city mayor and it’s a good lesson to learn. Mayor Mandel and I did not get off on a good footing and that did create some of the difficulties we had in Edmonton.”
Smith stirred up controversy in Edmonton with her call to reopen the City Centre Airport debate after city council decided in 2009 to close the airport and build a sustainable housing project championed by Mandel.
During the election, Smith advocated a special lottery to provide funds to build new arenas in Edmonton and Calgary. “We just don’t want middle-class taxpayers handing over dollars to millionaires and billionaires,” she added.
In the past, a scratch-ticket game raised about a million dollars, she noted, but “there are lots of other games you can do that have a lot bigger payoff and we’re looking at one in particular.”
“In the next few weeks we are going to propose something that will allow both teams to fund an arena by direct contribution of their fans,” she said.
Smith said she in convinced much of her party’s platform in the last election appealed equally to urban and rural voters, including whistleblower legislation, a wait-time guarantee for hospital care and the Wildrose’s “family pack” pledge to help middle-class families.
But she admitted contentious comments about race and homosexuality by candidates also helped undermine the party’s efforts to attract urban voters.
“Urban residents as well as young people don’t want to fight those old social battles, and anything that makes them think the party is looking backward, it’s not where they want to be.”
Meanwhile, Smith also said her party is looking into alternatives to the expensive $6-billion upgrade to the province’s electric transmission system now underway.
The Wildrose idea involves hydro projects on the Slave River in the northeast that could generate up to 11,000 megawatts, enough to serve expanding oilsands projects as well as growing demand in Edmonton and Calgary, said Smith, noting that energy critic Joe Anglin is spearheading the initiative.
The project would only need one new north-south transmission line, instead of the two lines worth a total of $3 billion already approved. Hydro is cheaper and would also allow the province to close the aging coal plants that provide two-thirds of Alberta’s electricity, she added.
Two new north-south lines, worth a total of $3 billion, and the new Heartland line into Strathcona County are under construction after the precise routes were approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission this fall.