Tax dollars for Calgary arena was wrong, funding the Oilers won’t make it right

Posted on August 22, 2024 by Ryan Dahlman

How many of your tax dollars do you want given to the Edmonton Oilers?

Premier Danielle Smith invited the Oilers Entertainment Group and the City of Edmonton to submit a proposal for the equivalent of what her government provided to the billionaire owners of the Calgary Flames (~$330 million) for their new professional sports arena.

Public dollars should be invested in public assets and public entities. Public funds should not pay for private business arenas. Not in Calgary, not in Edmonton.

Premier Danielle Smith should listen to 2012 Wildrose Opposition Leader Danielle Smith on this topic and not provide provincial funding for NHL arenas.

But if Smith is committed to handing over $330 million provincial tax dollars, why is she asking the Edmonton Oilers for a proposal? Will the Edmonton Oilers propose something in the best interests of city taxpayers or in the best interests of their private business?

Imagine asking a local pizza shop owner what infrastructure they thought the city needed. Would you be surprised if they proposed better street lighting outside their store, wider sidewalks outside their shop to expand their patio, and a brand-new parking lot behind their business, instead of, say, a new park, public swimming pool or library?

Two wrongs don’t make a right. Just because Smith is funding millions in upgrades to the arena district in Calgary, doesn’t mean she needs to ask the Oilers how to spend money in Edmonton to keep things fair.

In fact, Smith and the City of Calgary should have ignored the Calgary Flames’ demands and told them to buy their own arena and required infrastructure. Team owners in Vancouver, Toronto, Montréal, Columbus, Colorado, Las Vegas, New York, and Los Angeles all paid for their own arenas.

Calgary, just like Edmonton, is no longer the underdog of the NHL. In December, Forbes valued the Oilers franchise as being the seventh most valuable at $1.85 billion USD. Calgary was 19th at $1.1 billion USD and that was before the arena announcement.

Forbes also estimated the Oilers’ operating income in 2022-23 to be $122 million USD, second only to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Flames’ operating income was $37 million USD, putting them in the middle of the pack. And that was for a team that didn’t make the playoffs the last two seasons.

The owner of the Edmonton Oilers was already given a $613.7 million arena, winter garden, LRT platform, practice rink, and land courtesy of Edmonton taxpayers. The pittance the Oilers pay each year to the city is a steal, especially considering the city handed the Oilers the naming rights, which it sold to Rogers for an undisclosed sum.

Forgotten in all of this is the province did contribute to the Edmonton arena district by foregoing millions in provincial education property taxes through the use of a Community Revitalization Levy.

If Smith supports more provincial funding for the City of Calgary and the City of Edmonton (and rural municipalities, for that matter), then surely the money should be directed by the local city council based on the priorities of all citizens. Perhaps the city will want to assist taxpayers struggling with affordability, overcrowded buses, maintaining infrastructure, and ending poverty.

Former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed used to say, “We must think like owners.” We are the owners of this province, and our job is not to facilitate public handouts for private businesses, no matter how proud we are of the Edmonton Oilers and its recent playoff run.

Michael Janz is the Edmonton city councillor for Ward Papastew. 

Scott Hennig is the President and CEO of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.