EDMONTON- Should the City of Edmonton be coming up with a backup plan for how it will fund the downtown arena project? That seems to be the $100 million question, following Thursday’s provincial budget announcement.
In January, the city and the Katz Group signed off on a new framework agreement for the arena. However, $100 million in provincial funding was still missing.
Mayor Stephen Mandel says he has been reassured numerous times the money is coming, but there was no announcement of any funding in this year’s provincial budget.
“We’ve always said we don’t need the money this year, we just need the assurances that a program will be in place at some point in time,” Mandel said. “The devil’s in the details, and so we’ll have to wait for those to come out. But, I need to reiterate that I have been reassured time and time again that the issue of the arena… will be dealt with in this fiscal year.”
However, some city councillors aren’t so optimistic, and the question remains; should the city be coming up with a plan B?
“It remains to be seen if the funding is buried in there in some roundabout way or whether council is going to have to find some other way to fill that $100 million void in the arena project,” said Ward 10 councillor Don Iveson.
“At this point now it’s still a huge question mark on whether we can continue on or not,” added Ward 7 councillor Tony Caterina.
The province has said Edmonton will have MSI funds (Municipal Sustainability Initiative) to use on the arena, if it so wishes. Thursday afternoon, Finance Minister Doug Horner announced Edmonton would receive $170 million in MSI dollars this year, which is comparable to last year’s figures. However, the city has already spent all of its MSI money up until the year 2016.
“Using the existing MSI funding is not an option, all of that funding has been already allocated to projects,” said Ward 12 councillor Amarjeet Sohi.
Still, Sohi doesn’t think the missing money will impact the city’s current plan.
“That’s how we proceeded with NAIT line, all the money wasn’t in place. That’s how we’re proceeding with south east LRT line, all the money is not in place, but we’re still proceeding ahead, and that’s how we’ll proceed with the arena even though all the money is not in place.”
But, with both the city and the Katz Group eager to move ahead on the project, who pays for the additional costs?
“Is it the city? Is it the Katz Group? Is it a combination of both? Those things have never ever been discussed as a plan B, it’s always been strictly plan A: The province is doing this, and that hasn’t come to fruition,” explained Caterina.
“Many councillors promised that they would not take money away from established infrastructure projects and they would not raise taxes to do this, but if the province doesn’t have the $100 million, if it’s not forthcoming, then in order to do a deal we’re going to have to move some money around and that’s going to be a tough decision for council,” added Iveson.
Mandel remains optimistic, however, that the money will come through, and hopes to begin construction late this summer.
“The mayor is still confident that the money will come, so we have to kind of wait and see,” said Sohi.
“I don’t know if I want to take that leap of faith at this point now so, shovels in August? I really think that that’s a stretch,” said Caterina.
City council is expecting a report at the end of the month regarding arena contracts.
With files from Jenna Bridges and Vinesh Pratap.