Calgary city council appoints new committee tasked with taking next steps on event centre

We’re still far off from groundbreaking on a new event centre in Calgary, but a positive step forward was taken, as a new committee was appointed on Tuesday during a city council meeting.

Following the closed door session, Councillors Sonya Sharp, Courtney Walcott and Dan McLean were announced as the new members of the refurbished event centre committee, and they will sit alongside Brad Parry from Calgary Economic Development and Deborah Yedlin from the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

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It’s a bit of welcome good news after the old event centre deal between the city and the Calgary Flames fell apart at the start of the year following years of negotiations.

“Very pleased that things were very collegial and we were incredibly collaborative today and we move forward with this,” said Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

A third party will also be utilized to help with the negotiations, including seeing if the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) is willing to come back into the fold and talk about a new arena again.

While Gondek would not reveal if that third party has been selected, along with reiterating that it will be up to administration to hold more fulsome discussions rather than regular members of council, there is a renewed sense of confidence.

“I think what you see is a council that’s very interested in making sure we’re making strong economic decisions for our city, and we are also a council that is very interested in working with our partners. That’s why you see Economic Development and the Chamber represented on this committee.”

For the new members on the committee, it is also an exciting opportunity.

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“I’m thrilled,” said Sharp. “I think that we did take a step back and took a breath for a couple months, and now that we have the event centre committee going, now we have the opportunity to have those discussions.”

Sharp said they hope to get discussions started quickly and move into the item very soon within the next month or so.

While it will require another steep learning curve — especially since all the councillors on the committee are rookies at city hall — there’s a lot of existing groundwork to build off of.

“I think you can be cautious, but make sure that you keep the momentum going. The mandate of the committee is to build on the foundation that was already created. So we don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” Sharp said. “It’s not a matter of if the event centre gets built, it’s when the event centre gets built. The one thing I can guarantee with this committee is speed.”

Walcott said he wants to be sure that what goes up in the area around the existing Saddledome can be an anchor for the community going forward, and will ensure future growth that attracts new people and keeps residents in the community.

“It’s been a fascinating year of learning, and I would not be mad at continuing to learn from a different position.”