Edmontonians sound-off on public dollars for Oilers fan park

Edmonton city leaders began two days of public hearings over using future taxpayer dollars to build an event park besides Rogers Place, among other downtown revitalization projects, and they were getting an earful from those for and against. 

Edmonton’s city leaders face a decision on whether to extend the special tax used to build Edmonton’s downtown Ice District.

Working with the province, the city is able to borrow money against future property tax dollars to build projects to save Edmonton’s beleaguered downtown. 

At the heart of this week’s debate at council, a condition from the Government of Alberta that part of the levy be used to build an event park besides Rogers Place, in addition to other downtown infrastructure upgrades, as well as housing.

Edmonton’s outgoing mayor claims the Ice District has been a success.

“We have seen close to $5 billion of collective investment in the downtown, and the majority of that investment is coming from the private sector. So extending that CRL, I think is appropriate too,” said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi.

Downtown business leaders who support the funding say that while the Oilers will be getting something, the money is needed to revitalize downtown.

“When Florida and the Oilers had their hockey match, we saw a lot of people come to our downtown from outside of Canada, and you could tell they weren’t really impressed with what they were seeing. Safety issues, transportation issues, traffic issues. We want this money to be focused on Edmonton’s downtown,” said Ibukun Orefuka, the founder & CEO of Black Business Edmonton.

A group representing Alberta taxpayers is not happy with the deal. They want it put to a referendum. 

“I drove up from Lethbridge for this,” said Kris Sims the Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“We have to benefit this NHL club in order to revitalize downtown? That City Hall is responsible for and the province is also partially responsible for? Really? You have to help the Edmonton Oilers in order to that? I seriously doubt it. So at the very least, I think it’s really smart to put it back to the people,” said Sims.

Councillor and mayoral candidate Andrew Knack told reporters outside City Hall that public dollars should go towards public projects. Further discussion, he says, needs to wait.

“The other option would be to postpone this until after the election in October, to meaningfully engage with Edmontonians, because we haven’t had the opportunity to engage with Edmontonians since this discussion was started in private,” Knack explained.

The City will look for more public input on Friday.