Calgary arena concerns amid housing crisis

With Calgary now getting a new event centre and entertainment district, the local and provincial governments will pay hundreds of millions of dollars towards the project, and not everyone is happy.

Around $1.2 billion will be funded towards the project, with the city forking over $537 million, making 44 per cent of the total cost.

Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation is going to contribute $40 million upfront and $356 million in “present value.”

The Event Centre itself will cost around $800 million.

“I feel like the government is out of touch with the regular lives of people and how the majority of people in this city live,” said Maggy Wlodarczyk, a board member with Central Calgary Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

“Their lives day-to-day are not based around going to high-priced events on a regular basis. That’s something that is a rare treat.”

Watch: Can Calgary’s Saddledome co-exist with the new event centre?

Can Calgary’s Saddledome co-exist with the new event centre?

Are Calgarians ready to bid farewell to their favourite Saddledome? Henna Saeed explores if we can preserve history and design the new event centre with Saddledome’s iconic elements.

Share

Video Player is loading.

Play Video

PlaySkip Backward

Unmute

Current Time 0:00

/

Duration 1:51

Loaded: 0%

0:00

Stream Type LIVE

Seek to live, currently behind liveLIVE

Remaining Time -1:51

 

1x

Playback Rate

Chapters

• Chapters

Descriptions

• descriptions off, selected

Captions

• captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
• captions off, selected
• Track-1

Audio Track

• en (Main), selected

Fullscreen

This is a modal window.

Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.

Text

ColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-Transparent

Text Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparent

Caption Area Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaque

Font Size

50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%

Text Edge Style

NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop shadow

Font Family

Proportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps

Reset restore all settings to the default valuesDone

Close Modal Dialog

End of dialog window.

Close Modal Dialog

This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.

Close Modal Dialog

This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation director Kris Sims says they love hockey too, but this project isn’t good use of taxpayers’ money.

“NHL players make millions of dollars per year. The Calgary Flames, god love them, are worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be the ones footing the bills to build these new arenas for the players to play in and for the owners to kick back in their corporate boxes.”

Sims says the city needs to give details to Calgary taxpayers about how taxes will not go up since municipal money will go towards funding the project.

Related Stories:

• Calgary agrees in principle to $1.2B Event Centre deal

• Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says event centre won’t become ‘election issue,’ NDP say otherwise

• Calgary rental union calls for rent caps amid surging prices

Wlodarczyk also says she appreciates the idea of an events centre but feels it’s at a time when the majority of people cannot afford it.

“An extraordinary amount of money to be spending on an event centre when we have people who can barely afford their rent,” Wlodarczyk said.

“We have an increasing issue with homelessness in the city and with rental increases going up. And I don’t want to live in a city that has all sorts of fun events and people living on the street because they can’t afford to pay rent.”