TUESDAY,JULY30,2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAIL O A
The new home for the Calgary
Flames could be the most expen-
sive arena ever built in Canada
under a deal unveiled last week,
backed by more direct municipal
cash than any hockey rink before
it.
The city’s councillors and May-
or Naheed Nenshi, in the midst of
approving $60-million in budget
cuts, will vote Tuesday on wheth-
er to fund half of a proposed $550-
million facility for Calgary’s pro-
fessional hockey team.
The city and the owners of the
Calgary Flames made the deal
now before council after four
months of negotiation that in-
volved almost no input from city
councillors. Before those negotia-
tions, there were years of some-
times acrimonious talks about
building the new arena.
Councillor Jeff Davison, who
chaired the city committee re-
sponsible for the arena, attended
none of the hundreds of meetings
during negotiations. Instead, the
deal was agreed to by Ernst &
Young executive Barry Munro,
city manager Glenda Cole and the
head of the city’s redevelopment
arm, the Calgary Municipal Land
Corporation.
“It was really important that
councillors didn’t have any influ-
ence on that negotiating group.
None of us are experts. We needed
the city manager, we needed
someone who knew the land and
someone who could put a deal to-
gether on our behalf. We found
the right guy in Barry Munro and
four months later, here we are,”
Mr. Davison told The Globe and
Mail. He described the process as
“hands off” by elected officials.
Mr. Munro, who did not re-
spond to an interview request,
was brought on after Mr. Davison
exchanged letters with the
Flames owners that established
what the two groups were looking
for in a new arena. The $550-mil-
lion budget could fund a smaller
community rink in addition to
the arena, although those details
have yet to be finalized. No public
information has been released on
which party would be responsible
for cost overruns in construction,
which could start in 2021.
Councillor Evan Woolley ques-
tioned why the deal wasn’t shown
to elected officials sooner, who
only had a week to digest the in-
formation and vote on it. Last
week, council had to approve 23
pages of budget cuts and hold
talks on whether to delay or rede-
sign a $4.9-billion transit line.
“Just in terms of due diligence
and process there’s a huge gap
there and like agovernoron the
board of directors of a company, I
have a fiduciary duty. And my due
diligence has to be fast, just one
week,” Mr. Woolley said. He asked
council to delay the arena vote to
September, but his request was
turned down.
The arena deal has attracted
fans and critics since it was re-
leased late last Monday. Some
have seen it as the best way toboost spirits and keep the Flames
in a city struggling because of an
oil crash that started in 2015,
while others have asked why a
profitable franchise can’t pay for
its own facility at a time of shrink-
ing municipal budgets.
On top of the city’s investment
of $275-million, if the deal is ap-
proved, taxpayers will also be re-
quired to spend $12.4-million de-
molishing the nearly 36-year-old
Saddledome and millions more
for new infrastructure around the
facility, which will be built about
100-metres away from the exist-
ing arena. In exchange, the city
expects to collect a ticket tax as
well as some additional property
taxes in the expanding area east
of downtown. The Flames will
stay in Calgary for 35 years under
the deal and will continue to sup-
port local community groups
with over $2.5-million in annual
funding. The arena itself will be
city-owned and will not pay prop-
erty taxes.
“The deal is very similar to the
one the city has with the team on
the Saddledome. It’s very status
quo. But that $275-million is a big
number and city council shouldhave held out for a better deal and
stared them down,” said Moshe
Lander, sports economics profes-
sor at Concordia University in
Montreal.
“I was pretty disappointed in
the deal. This is by far the largest
amount of public funds used to
build any arena in Canada. No one
has come close to that figure yet
in direct public funds,” he added.
Rogers Place in Edmonton, the
most expensive arena built in
Canada to date, opened in 2016
and cost $506-million in 2019 dol-
lars - about $370-million of which
was publicly funded. That arena
will eventually receive more in
public support than Calgary’s
proposed facility, however, much
of Edmonton’s public funding
comes from diverting future
property-tax increases.
Mr. Davison rejected the criti-
cism that the city is giving too
much money to a profitable en-
terprise. “When people talk about
us giving money to millionaires,
that’s not it. This is a civic-owned
facility, they are actually giving us
money. To get a partner to write
you a cheque for $275-million is
hard,” he said.Talks for a new arena broke
down publicly in 2017. At the
time, the Flames called those dis-
cussions “spectacularly unpro-
ductive.” National Hockey League
commissioner Gary Bettman
then visited Calgary and threat-
ened that the Flames could be
moved unless the city brought
forward substantial funding for
an arena.
Officials from the city and the
Calgary Flames organization have
been largely quiet on the arena
deal since it was unveiled last
week. Mr. Nenshi went into the
2017 mayoral election, which he
eventually won, in a standoff with
the NHL over the arena. The may-
or has now come out in support of
this latest deal. His office declined
multiple requests to speak to
speak about the arena. The Cal-
gary Flames also declined multi-
ple requests to comment.
After years of on-again off-
again, often-bruising talks be-
tween the Flames and Mr. Nenshi,
this deal has the fingerprints of a
tired council, Mr. Lander said.
“For city council, $275-million is
the price of peace with the
Flames.”CalgarycounciltovoteonFlamesarena
Cityissettoconsider
whethertofundhalf
of$550-millionfacility,
whichreceivedmixed
reactionssinceitwas
unveiledlastweek
JUSTINGIOVANNETTICALGARY
Calgary’snewmultimillion-dollararenawouldreplacethenearly36-year-oldSaddledomeasthehomeoftheCalgaryFlames.Thedealwentthrough
fourmonthsofnegotiationsthatinvolvedalmostnoinputfromcitycouncillors.JEFFMCINTOSH/THECANADIANPRESSA First Nation in northwestern
British Columbia has bought a
stake in clean-energy operations
worth more than $2.5-billion.
The Tahltan First Nation says it
purchased 5 per cent of three run-
of-river hydro-electric projects lo-
cated in its traditional territories,
which include the communities
of Iskut, Dease Lake and Tele-
graph Creek.
Tahltan Central Government
president Chad Day says the deal
is a historic economic achieve-
ment for the First Nation as it will
generate revenue and provideclean energy for generations. The
First Nation purchased its portion
of Northwest British Columbia
Hydro Electric Facilities for more
than $124-million from Axium In-
frastructure Canada and Manulife
Financial Corp.
The power-generating facili-
ties include run-of-the-river pro-
jects, Forrest Kerr, McLymont
Creek and Volcano Creek, which
produce electricity sold to BC Hy-
dro, the province’s Crown-owned
energy utility. The Tahltan First
Nation says its territory repre-
sents about 25 per cent of current
mining exploration activities.THECANADIANPRESSTheTahltanFirstNationboughtastakeinpower-generatingfacilities,
includingtheForrestKerrfacility,seenabove.THECANADIANPRESSB.C.FirstNationbuysstake
inclean-energyprojects
totallingmorethan$2.5-billion
VICTORIAThe Ontariogovernment has apologized to
the families of autistic children for a plan that
cut thousands of dollars from the money they
receive for therapy after outrage from parents,
but said the new funding arrangement will
not be rolled out until next spring.
Todd Smith, Minister of Children, Commu-
nity and Social Services, acknowledged for the
first time on Monday that changes to the au-
tism program announced earlier this year
were poorly conceived.
“It’s clear to me that we didn’t get the rede-
sign right the first time. I’m here to tell you we
will now,” Mr. Smith told report-
ers at a news conference in To-
ronto.
He added: “We are certainly
sorry for the anxiety this has
caused parents across Ontario.”
Mr. Smith saidthe government
would reverse its direction and
provide families with funding
based on the needs of individual
children. He said the budget for
autism therapy would remain at
$600-million. Under the earlier
Progressive Conservativegovern-
ment plan, families receive a set
amount based on their child’s
age.
Some families said the capped
funding – $20,000 a year for children younger
6, and $5,000 a year after that – was nowhere
near what they needed for therapy, which can
cost up to $80,000 a year.
Former minister of children, community
and social services Lisa MacLeod had said the
government’s original plan, announced in
February, would clear a backlog of 23,000 chil-
dren awaiting treatment.
The government’s change in direction
comes after months of protests from parents
and an internal review, obtained by The Globe
and Mail, that called for an immediate reset of
the government’s strategy.
The report, prepared by Toronto-area Pro-
gressive Conservative MPP Roman Baber, said
Premier Doug Ford’s government purposely
spread misinformation about the costs and
the backlog of children waiting for treatment
to justify a funding model that would leave
families “destitute.”
Mr. Smith’s spokeswoman, Christine Wood,
said the government is working toward imple-
menting the changes in the new fiscal year,
which begins in April, 2020.
Laura Kirby-McIntosh, president of the On-
tario Autism Coalition and a member of the
government’s autism advisory panel, said not
having a program based on needs in place
until next April is unacceptable.
“I don’t think they understand the sense of
urgency that’s out there in the community
right now,” she said.
“How much longer are we expected to wait
while they mess with our children’s lives?”
Ottawa parent Kerry Monaghan, who has
two children on the autism spectrum, said she
was disappointed to learn the plan wouldn’t
be fully in place until next spring.
“What’s so painful about that is that it
could have happened April 1, 2019, had Lisa
MacLeod taken the time to consult with fam-
ilies and experts,” Ms. Monaghan said.
She added: “It was good to have somewhat
of an apology today that acknowledged the
anxiety in this community, but it does not buy
back the time.”
Some parents had said their
children faced the prospect of
returning to school full-time in
the fall and regressing under the
system the PCs introduced earli-
er this year because their fund-
ing would have been cut by tens
of thousands of dollars. (Under
the previous Liberal govern-
ment program, funding was un-
limited for children in the pro-
gram.)
Ms. MacLeod was demoted in
a recent cabinet shuffle to the
Minister of Tourism, Culture and
Sport.
Mr. Smith said on Monday
that the changes to the PC plan
will likely not clear the waiting list. (Mr. Bab-
er’s report said thegovernment’s figures on
the backlog do not account for children regis-
tered with more than one service provider or
returning for further therapy.)
Mr. Smith said thegovernment doubled the
funding to $600-million earlier this year after
hearing concerns from families, and that
money will serve more children and families.
An autism advisory panelthe government cre-
ated will develop a needs-based program
within that budget.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Smith said the gov-
ernment will announce the details later this
year after it receives the panel’s recommenda-
tion by the end of August.
The funding based on age will continue in
the meantime, Mr. Smith said.
He also announced another extension of up
to six months for children who receive ther-
apy under the Liberalgovernment’s system.
Michael Coteau, a Liberal MPP and the for-
mer minister responsible for the autism file,
said in a statement that parents had their
“lives thrown upside-down by Premier Doug
Ford’s misguided and flawed changes to the
Ontario autism program.”
He added: “Now, at long last,the govern-
ment appears to finally be reversing course, at
least in part.”OntarioPCsapologizetofamilies
forinitialautismprogramcuts
CAROLINEALPHONSO
EDUCATIONREPORTER
It’scleartomethat
wedidn’tgetthe
redesignrightthe
firsttime....Weare
certainlysorryfor
theanxietythishas
causedparents
acrossOntario.TODDSMITH
MINISTEROFCHILDREN,
COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL
SERVICESNEWS |CALGARYA fire-safety company
has been accused of allowing
improperly trained workers to
install alarms, extinguishers and
other life-saving equipment in
large grocery stores, pharmacies
and restaurants in Calgary.
Premium Fire Protection Ltd.
and 10 of its employees are
facing 65 charges under the
Alberta Fire Code, the Calgary
Fire Department said Monday.
Another 15 charges have alsobeen laid against businesses
that hired Premium Fire Protec-
tion, which the city is not iden-
tifying.
“We’ve never had an in-
vestigation this lengthy or in-
volving this many charges be-
fore,” deputy fire chief Ken
Uzeloc said.
No one from the company
immediately responded when
asked for comment.
THE CANADIAN PRESSIRE-PROTECTIONCOMPAN<ANDITSEMP O<EES
ACECARGESINCA GAR<UNDERA BERTAIRECODE