Calgary hockey palace tempts taxpayers
Calgary and all of Alberta have been crying poor ever since the price of oil took a dive in 2014.
The list of those to blame for all the misfortune is long, but at the top are Rachel Notley and the NDP, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals and environmental activists.
But with an abracadabra that would impress even Aladdin, Calgary now has the money for a $550-million hockey palace to be built in the shadow of all those glassy towers full of empty offices where employees once toiled for oil and gas companies.
Half the money for the new arena would come from the owners of the Calgary Flames, men like Murray Edwards, who has made millions from Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the second largest oilsands operator.
The other half would come from city coffers and that’s got some Calgarians fuming and calling for a penalty.
As Mayor Naheed Nenshi said: “The optics stink.”
That’s because the deal for the 19,000-seat hockey arena was revealed the day before city council slashed $60 million from the city budget; cuts that hit affordable housing, public transit, firefighting services and community recreation programs.
Those budgets cuts became necessary because angry business owners accused city council this year of overspending and then demanded a cut to their property taxes, which had been increased to compensate for the drop in revenue due to all those empty office buildings.
In June, city council agreed to a retroactive cut and then, of course, councillors had to go back into the budget because there wasn’t enough money coming in to cover it.
As if the optics of proposing to pay for half a hockey arena for a privately owned NHL team just before shuttering affordable housing units and reducing the frequency of public transit (that goes over really well in the winter) weren’t bad enough, Calgarians were given only a week to weigh in on the deal.
Even some city councillors who have spent hours going over the small print say they still have questions and need more time.
“We engage Calgarians more broadly and deeply on public toilets than we have on a $275-million investment,” Councillor Evan Woolley declared.
Why the deal has to be voted on by city council only a week after it was reached has not been fully explained.
But it might have something to do with the rejection of a plan endorsed by city council and the business community to bid on the 2026 Winter Olympics. That plan would have cost $3 billion in public money, split between the federal, provincial and municipal governments, but Calgarians gave it a thumbs down in a plebiscite late last year.
Perhaps the deal makers fear that too much public consultation will result in the same verdict and they can’t afford to risk that.
Perhaps Mayor Nenshi and city councillors are afraid the Flames will pack up and leave if they don’t get an arena as fancy as the one where the Edmonton Oilers play.
Or perhaps, along with the Flames owners, they simply don’t like the optics of Calgary having the oldest hockey arena in the league.
The iconic Saddledome was completed in 1983 in anticipation of the 1988 Winter Olympics. If the current deal goes ahead, it will be ground to dust at a cost of $14 million.
Whatever the reasons, there are still so many questions, for example: Who will pick up additional costs? Construction projects always cost more than originally forecast. Is the city’s projected return on its investment in current dollars or future dollars? What else could the money be used for? If the entire development is such a great idea, why can’t the Flames owners attract other investors and forgo taxpayers’ money? Don’t conservatives, and there are a lot in Calgary, abhor taxpayer money being funnelled into private companies?
City council is slated to make a decision on the deal on Tuesday, unless it decides to delay until it can better gauge Calgarians’ enthusiasm for the project.
But despite all the moaning about hard times and high taxes, this already looks like a deal that will eventually be signed, sealed and delivered.