A coalition of downtown business leaders met Monday afternoon, in a show of support for the proposed downtown arena project – set to go before council once again Wednesday.
The group – made up of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and artists – met at the Art Gallery of Alberta Monday.
The Downtown Vibrancy Association said it’s trying to push the downtown arena deal forward, the group’s chair said he believes the whole project is in on a precipice, and might not move forward.
Chair Simon O’Byrne told CTV News he believes the future of the project hangs with the missing $55 million – which the city still hopes the province will cover, although provincial officials have said it wouldn’t happen.
“We believe it’s really crisis time, we’ve just got to get it done,” O’Byrne said, “There’s no shortage of solutions here, there’s no shortage of financial tools available to make this happen, it’s just a question of getting them to agree to use those tools and to get this done.”
O’Byrne said the association wants to see all major players in the project: the City of Edmonton, Alberta Government and Katz Group to meet and sort out outstanding issues in an effort to save the project.
“The question is prioritizing the downtown because it’s so important for the city; we really believe that as goes the downtown, so goes the city,” O’Byrne said.
‘Not enough votes’ to move forward
Across the street, at City Hall, the atmosphere around the project was less sure; Councillor Kim Krushell said support for the project has waned.
“I think right now if you were to take votes down the hall, there are not enough votes at this moment to support getting that arena deal done,” Krushell said. “I think it’s disappointing because we’ve been working this long to try and get a deal done.”
However, Councillor Kerry Diotte thinks the current deal is not good for the city, and he believes the city should walk away from the deal now – even though millions have already been spent on the project.
“It might be better to walk away from a loss of $30 or 40 million, than be into an arena for $480 million and then suddenly you’re looking for more, more and more money,” Diotte said.
He continued, saying he’s heard from a number of Edmontonians who think the Oilers owner should help cover the missing money: “I’m just hearing from people they think that if anybody, Daryl Katz should be putting into it, he’s going to be the beneficiary, and he’s a multi-billionaire.”
Krushell agrees with Diotte on the funding, but she supports the deal, calling it good for Edmonton’s downtown.
On Wednesday, when the matter is before council again, she hopes cooler heads prevail and the project is at least deferred to a future date, she said, because the “votes just simply aren’t there.”
The City Clerk told CTV News there are a few different ways council could go Wednesday, councillors could vote to borrow the missing funds, and amend their original motion to hold out for provincial funds, and it’s possible the project could be scrapped – although deferral is an option as well.
Pushing the province for funding
As for the Downtown Vibrancy Association, they’re pushing the province to come up with the $55 million.
In the last council meeting on the matter, council voted to borrow $45 million from the Municipal Sustainability Initiative fund, but have that hinge on the province covering $55 million.
“We believe that this investment in the downtown will benefit the city and this region which stood behind [Premier Alison Redford] when she was elected last time,” O’Byrne said. “We would like to see that support from her.”
Since then, the province has not wavered from its position – no new funding will be made available for the downtown arena.
“If the community does decide that this is a priority for them, then we have made funds available through the Municipal Sustainability Initiative where local decision makers can decide to spend the funds in that way,” Redford said Monday.
The association said by mid Monday afternoon, the association had received about 300 letters of support from Edmontonians, they said they would pass it on to the city.
With files from Serena Mah
