A media furore has irrupted in Canada outside Quebec (COQ). Strong local support for the return of a storied NHL franchise -- the beloved Nordiques -- to the provincial capital (disclosure: I spend part of the year here in Quebec City), linked to a request for federal financial support has emboldened editorial writers, columnists, cartoonists, and, undoubtedly, talk show hosts to vent their opposition.
Imagine, the Quebec government has pledged to invest $175-million (or 45 per cent of the costs) in a new public multi-purpose sports and entertainment facility in Quebec City. The Charest Liberals have decided it would be an important asset for the city where Aboriginals met Samuel Champlain in 1608, and most of the people in Quebec agree.
Quebec is the oldest city in Canada, featuring the most beautiful historical buildings on this continent. It also has something sadly lacking elsewhere: dynamic political leadership. The municipal government has committed to investing $50 million in the facility which it will own and control, and it has big plans for its future use, including an intention to bring the Olympics here in 2022.
Now, Ottawa is being asked to contribute its share of the $400-million cost. From the media uproar, you would think only fools would support the idea, and that the Government of Canada should walk away from the cradle of Canada leaving one quarter of Canadians to cry (in French) in their beer.
It is so unthinkable that Canada should act as one country? Why not support the construction of a publicly owned and municipally operated sports facility? I grew up in Edmonton. The professional Eskimo football team played at the publicly owned and operated Clarke Stadium. So did high school teams. Track meets were held there, tennis courts, and ball fields were part of the complex. The Flyers, the professional hockey team played at the publicly owned Edmonton Gardens, and shared it with everybody looking for artificial ice.
For the opponents of public ownership, only commercial opportunity is a legitimate reason to build a sports arena, and only a commercially owned facility passes the sniff test. Really? I would rather have the Nordiques paying market prices to rent a public facility rather than having the renowned Quebec City International Pee Wee Hockey championship paying commercial rates to the private owner of the new Quebec Amphitheatre.
I think every member of parliament should support this project. There are good reasons for Canada to invest in public facilities for professional spectator sports. Provided the space is used by the community for general purposes of promoting health, sports, and community activities, a publicly owned facility has a lot to offer all citizens, not just those who pay for Nordiques tickets.
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Ottawa is being also asked to cover 45 per cent of the capital costs for the project, or about $175 million. This would go to construction costs, and would be paid out over two years at least. The portion that would be paid by COQ would be three-quarters of the Ottawa contribution, say, $132 million or $66 million a year for fiscal year 2011-12, and again in 2012-13 (the rest of the Ottawa portion naturally being picked up by Quebec residents).
About 25 million people live in Canada outside Quebec. We would have to ante up less than $6 each over two years to pay for the facility, about what it costs someone over 65 for one admission ticket to a movie on half price day. This is a lot of money? Not to be forgotten, every arena ticket eventually sold will bring back five per cent in GST revenue to Ottawa.
If we want to talk legitimate economy let's look at the $16 billion sole source contract for fighter planes, or the $1 billion security bill to cover a few days of G8/G20 meetings.
Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail thinks the beneficiary of this project will be the new owner of the Nordiques, and guesses it will be Pierre Karl Péladeau. The titan of Quebecor (Sun Media and Vidéotron cable) has made no secret of wanting to own the franchise, and Cirque du Soleil billionaire Guy Laliberté might be interested as well.
I am no fan of the current NHL business plan, or of the ownership practices in the league. The players' union has serious enough problems that Buzz Hargrove decided he could not help them sort things out. Hockey, however, belongs to everyone who has ever laced on skates, enjoyed watching a game, or following a favorite team.
A new public facility in Quebec City could host the World Women's Hockey championship playing for the Clarkson Cup, world and national junior tournaments, and become the capital of old timer hockey.
The only serious objection to this is why Quebec City, and not Edmonton, or Regina? Answer: Quebec got its act together and came up with a project. Ottawa should say yes, and invite each province to come up with its own project, and fund one a year, every year, in the field of sports and culture, using the Quebec formula, the city pays, the province pays, and Ottawa pays. Canadians would benefit.
Duncan Cameron writes weekly on politics, and is president of rabble.ca.
Er, thumbs down, actually.
I'm sitting here on the west coast watching our government spend another billion dollars renovating a stadium (putting on a retractable roof in a city where the weather will suit an open roof for less than two months a year) that was built only 25 years ago for a billion. Enough of the big subsidies to Big Sport! Let the team owners and those who want to watch the silly games they promote pay for the playgrounds in which to play. If that means higher prices for beer and lower salaries for players, so be it.
I remember the Canadiens/Nordiques rivalry..It was epic and unlike any rivalry before or after--Including the Canadiens 1970's rival Boston and the not so much rivalry between the Habs and the Leafs.
I would love to see Quebec with another NHL franchise.
But I'm pretty cool to the idea of tax dollars being used to finance any franchise in any city in Canada.
There's no such thing as a publicly owned NHL team or any other professional sport--in North America anyway.
There is nothing sacred left in the NHL besides Madison Square Garden which has been spared a corporate logo a la Pepsi,Molson,Air Canada,GM,RBC or Bell.
Inevitably,any team building would be branded by a corporate label and profits would be funneled into corporate coffers..It's not like the profits are going to be funneled into our health care system,affordable housing or our education system.
I'm tired of the corporate welfare state we've been living with for the past good 20 years.
Enough with the plutocracy,enough with the publicly financed corporate world that is responsible for our high unemployment rates,our lowered standard of living,our vanishing job benefits and pensions and our higher taxes.
For the record,the poor,the sick and the aging population are just a convenient target to throw the blame on to for our economic ills.
Business and business only should finance businesses.
Uh, missing here is the very good possibility that once the public facility is completed it is later privatized. My thumbs down as well although I too miss the Nords.