Coderre denies giving special treatment to corporate giant
$28-million grant for amphitheatre on Île-Ste-Hélène
Mayor Denis Coderre denied allegations Friday his administration gave preferential treatment to Groupe CH, owners of the Montreal Canadiens and the Evenko concert promotion firm, by granting $28 million in public funds to upgrade the open-air amphitheatre on ÎleSte-Hélène.
“Listen, the reality, and it’s factual … is we needed major change (on Île-Ste-Hélène),” he said. “I have a lot of ambition for Montreal. Parc Jean-Drapeau belongs to everyone, and I think that if we can have something like the Hollywood Bowl that attracts topnotch acts that are the greatest in the world, including our own locally, so be it.”
An article published Friday by La Presse noted that Groupe CH had tried since 2010 without success to convince the city administration to invest heavily to increase the capacity of the open-air theatre that hosts the Osheaga, Heavy Montreal and ÎleSoniq music festivals promoted by Evenko from 45,000 seats to 65,000. It was also asking for the city to pay for electrical infrastructure that would benefit concert promoters who use generators to power their sound systems.
But after Coderre was elected in 2013, his administration made changes to plans already in place to modernize Îlesignificant Ste-Hélène, choosing to invest $10 million to increase seating capacity and $18 million for electrical infrastructure and technological equipment at the requests of Groupe CH.
The new infrastructure would save Groupe CH about $500,000 a year, La Presse reported. Plans to create a three-kilometre waterfront promenade and rebuild the Place des Nations site were downgraded.
Groupe CH owns the Montreal Canadiens, valued by Forbes magazine at US$1.1 billion, the Bell Centre, l’Équipe Spectra and Evenko.
Unnamed sources told La Presse the electrical infrastructure would benefit Evenko almost exclusively, because it handles the three largest music festivals on the island.
The sources added that Evenko did not want to invest in the infrastructure.
Coderre responded Friday that while the city administration had a plan for what it wanted to see on the island, including more seating capacity for the amphitheatre, it was the paramunicipal organization Société du parc Jean-Drapeau (SPJD) that handled all the negotiations, and he wasn’t involved in the discussions.
“We had to bring back some infrastructure and new services so we could see Kent Nagano (music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal) with 65,000 people, sorry for St-Lambert, to have a great concert and showing that Montreal is one of the greatest metropolises of the world,” he said.
“What do we have against that? There is no problem of perception. It belongs to everybody.”
Opposition party Projet Montréal voted against the Coderre administration’s changes to the plans each time they came up in council.
“We were saying: ‘Why are we changing everything so suddenly? There was a plan done by the different actors who know the park,” party leader and mayoral candidate Valérie Plante said Friday.
“We were really uncomfortable with the way it was managed and we never got the answers . ...
“I find it troubling that the interests of one promoter seemed to go before the interests of all Montrealers.”