Whether you’re an Edmonton Oilers or a Calgary Flames fan, you can now show your support in a new way.
Service Alberta introduced two new specialty licence plates — featuring hockey team logos, slogans and colours — on Saturday.
The province said money raised from the plates will benefit the Calgary Flames Foundation and the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation.
Starting Nov. 19, plates can be ordered from Alberta registry agents for a one-time cost of $75 plus a registry agent charge.
From that amount, $20 is kept by the government to recover costs of producing and shipping the plates, and the remaining $55 goes to the Calgary Flames Foundation or the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation — depending on which plate was chosen.
Rally the rivalry
John Bean, president of Calgary Sports & Entertainment, called this an awesome opportunity for the charities and the fans.
“Everyone knows how good the Battle of Alberta is,” he said. “To take that topic and convert it into something that can be so meaningful to the communities and get our foundations to be working together and against each other — we can have some healthy rivalry here — see who sells the most number of plates.”
Both cities’ foundations support health and wellness, education, and youth hockey programming.
“As much as we are rivals on the ice, both foundations do such great work in our respective communities — really working hard to make sure we reinvest lots of dollars back into the community,” said Natalie Minckler, executive director of Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation.
Minister of Service Alberta Brian Malkinson said the government looked to successful plate programs like Saskatchewan’s Roughriders for the rollout.
“I couldn’t think of a better charitable organization than the Battle of Alberta — one of the two provinces in Canada that has two separate hockey teams,” he said. “It’s a great rivalry that Albertans enjoy.”
“I’m curious to see which team’s fans end up buying more of these plates.”
The hockey logos expand on Alberta’s specialty licence plate program, which features the Support Our Troops design saluting the Canadian Armed Forces. In the last four years, the province sold 43,000 Support Our Troops plates, Malkinson said.
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