EDMONTON — There may be provincial money available after all for a new downtown Edmonton hockey arena, but Premier Ed Stelmach suggested city officials might have to make some choices.
Stelmach and Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel met Tuesday to discuss the city’s request for $100 million in provincial support.
Stelmach said the city is free to use money from an existing program called the Municipal Sustainability Initiative, noting municipalities can use the proceeds for any public infrastructure.
However, it would be up to the city to decide whether the money should go to the proposed arena rather than roads and bridges or other projects.
“It’s an existing program,” Stelmach stressed. “The program was available from day one.”
When the city and the Katz Group were trying to come to agreement on the funding of the arena, Stelmach had said there would be no direct provincial money given to a private enterprise.
But he now says that since the city will be the owner of the arena, that makes it a public and not a private project.
“We had a very good discussion,” said Mandel as he emerged from the meeting. “The premier’s looking at options to use a current program in order to help all the municipalities across the province.
“He’ll try to do the best he can.”
The one wrinkle could be that the city has already allocated its share of money from the MSI fund to specific projects, meaning either those allocations would have to be changed or more money would have to be added to the fund.
Stelmach said the latter is a possibility.
“We’ll get a first-quarter report and see where it goes from there.”
The Katz Group, which owns the Edmonton Oilers, has agreed to chip in $100 million for the new $450-million facility, with the city ponying up $250 million.
That still leaves $100 million to be raised.
Under the deal, the city will own the land and the building while the Katz Group will take care of operations and maintenance.