A city report, set to go before councillors next week, is already getting some response from members of City Council, and it has some councillors looking for other sources of funding.

The report, titled “Downtown Arena Capital Profile Approval”, outlines funding for the downtown arena – including the millions of dollars slated to come from the province.

According to the report, $69 million of the $604.5 million project is to come from other orders of government, with $55 million from the provincial government.

In the report, city administrators said that money won’t be needed for the project until 2015 or 2016 – and council should move forward with the project, without a guarantee of that funding.

That portion of funding for the downtown arena has become a contentious issue, even after city council voted to reduce the $100 million administrators had slated to come from the province by nearly half.

The subject of the downtown arena was last dealt with by council on April 10, when councillors decided to borrow $45 million of that fund, using $3 million from the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) each year, over 20 years to pay it off.

However, that plan was contingent on the province committing to putting in $55 million.

Even now, the province has maintained no provincial money will go directly to fund the downtown arena – maintaining a stance they took before the city decided to borrow part of that sum.

Meanwhile, Mayor Stephen Mandel has maintained he was confident the province would come through.

Some on council against the report’s suggestion

Suggesting the project move forward without guaranteed funding is not sitting well with some councillors, some said it could put the entire downtown arena at risk, Amarjeet Sohi told CTV News the Oilers owner, Daryl Katz, should put in more money.

“It will be sad to see this deal fall apart,” Sohi said. “But I really don’t know how we can put any more money into it.

“I think the Katz Group needs to come to the table.”

Sohi suggested the city and Katz Group split the outstanding funding gap.

However, Councillor Kerry Diotte said it should all be covered by Katz.

“If anyone should be putting in the missing money its Daryl Katz,” Diotte said. “Why not? He’s the billionaire.

“I think taxpayers have paid too much for this deal.”

Councillor Kim Krushell said new buildings downtown are needed to kick-start development in the area – since the money for the arena could come from a Community Revitalization Levy (CRL).

“I know we can come up with the cash through the CRL,” Krushell said. “In fact, when we have the report come forward it’s going to do better than we’re anticipating.”

However, Krushell admitted with an election coming up, she could see other councillors looking at their past promises to constituents, and sticking to those.

Since the idea of the downtown arena was conceived, the city has already spent $30 million on design work for the community rink component of the downtown arena – administration said another $8 million is needed to finish it.

When that is done, administration said they will have a better idea of what the guaranteed maximum price of the arena project would be.

Quebec company retained by PCL

The response to the report came after it was revealed that an eastern Canadian company had been retained by an local construction company to consult on their arena bid.

CTV News has learned that Structal Heavy Steel, out of Quebec, had been hired by PCL Group to help the company develop their project bid.

The vice-president of Icon, and the project manager for the arena, said the company’s price was low, it was more qualified and their proposal was better.

“I can understand that local contractors would be upset if they didn’t get the work,” Icon VP Don Vaillant said in a phone interview with CTV News. “But when they’re, not only not the low-price proponent, when they also don’t provide the same level of qualifications or expertise, it makes it difficult to award the project or that scope of work to them.”

An official with the downtown arena project told CTV News that if the project goes ahead, and PCL is given the contract to build it, Structal could have a chance to bid and provide the steel for the project.

City council will debate the downtown arena, and the recommendation in the most recent report, on Wednesday, May 8.

With files from Kim Taylor