EDMONTON- Alberta’s justice minister has voiced his opinion, rather publicly, on Mayor Stephen Mandel’s request for provincial funding for Edmonton’s downtown arena.
Thursday morning, Jonathan Denis took to Facebook saying he’s “sick and tired of demands for the province to fund professional sports arenas.”
Denis went on to ask his followers to “like” the comment if they thought tax dollars should instead be spent on hospitals, schools, roads and police.
City council still needs to find $55 million to complete funding for the $480 million arena. Mandel has long maintained he has been given reassurance by the province that the funding will come.
“City council has gone a tremendous distance in our investment to it and it’s up to the province to step up and participate,” Mandel said Wednesday.
However, on Thursday, Denis reiterated the premier has been very clear; there will be no direct funding from the province.
“It’s about time to just move on from that. There is going to be no direct funding for professional sports arenas,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a good use of tax dollars.”
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Denis says while he’s a hockey fan himself, repeated requests from the city have become a bit frustrating.
“I do know Mayor Mandel personally and I enjoy dealing with him, but we have differences of opinions from time to time and this is one of them.”
Having a difference of opinion seems to be one point the pair can agree upon.
After seeing Denis’ comment on Facebook, Mandel responded by saying, “Minister Denis has his beliefs and I’m not going to debate about Minister Denis’ beliefs.”
“Him and I don’t believe the same way and we have a different view of society and we start from a different point, therefore we are going to come to a different conclusion. But I am not going to get into a debate with him about issues. We just start from a different point and so you end at a different point.”
Mandel says money from the province would go towards more than just the arena, and without it, the project will be dead.
“Without the arena, you might as well throw the rest of the stuff in the garbage, because none of it’s going to happen. So no arena- no CRL, no redevelopment downtown except for an isolated, but very, very important, new museum. But I think the province needs to participate.”
Time is ticking, though. The deadline to come up with a financial plan is May 8th.
Follow @CaleyRamsay
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