• Documents also reveal pro-taxpayer funding bias for new NHL arena in Edmonton

EDMONTON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today released earlier drafts of the City Shaping report authored by Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel's Leadership Committee for a New Sports/Entertainment Facility. The drafts reveal the committee's request for new taxi and hotel taxes in Edmonton to pay for a new arena, among other pro-tax funding suggestions.

The draft documents obtained by the CTF through a Freedom of Information request (FOIP) show that "taxi and hotel levies," were originally considered as "other user pay revenues." These two new taxes were subsequently removed before publication of the final document.

"We already know Mayor Mandel has requested the province give the city the right to introduce a hotel tax, an amusement or ticket tax, a car registration tax, and a property transfer tax, but this is the first we've heard of a potential taxi tax," said CTF-Alberta director Scott Hennig.

"The Mayor has been quoted in the past as saying that 'we just can't afford to take our municipal tax dollars and put it into an arena,' as well as 'we're not going to raise taxes to pay for this,' however he's never ruled out introducing new 'levies' or taxes to pay for the arena," continued Hennig. "Taxpayers have a right to know what new taxes are part of the Mayor's plan."

While the final report suggests a minimum 30% of the costs be borne by the Oilers owner and other private entities, earlier drafts suggest a preferred maximum of 60% of the costs be borne by private interests. In other words, taxpayers could be on the hook for no less than 40% of the costs, and potentially upwards of 70%.

"It's mind boggling why the committee would suggest that the 'preferred' level of funding from private investors only be 60 percent of the costs. Shouldn't 100 percent be the preferred level " questioned Hennig.

Lastly, the draft documents show that committee chairman, Lyle Best, as well as others cut sections out of the final report that show all of the NHL arenas built in Canada in the past two decades have been 100% privately financed. This includes the new and current NHL arenas in Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.

"Clearly the Mayor's committee believed that the fact that all of the new NHL arenas in Canada were built without any tax dollars hurt their case that Edmonton needs taxpayers to help foot this bill," concluded Hennig.

Excerpts comparing draft documents to the final report can be found here:

• New taxi and hotel levies (300kb)
• 60% preferred funding level (302kb)
• Chairman Lyle Best's edits (359kb)
• Canadian arena examples (417kb)

Full copies of the draft reports can be found here:

• City Shaping - Draft #1 (1.92 Mb)
• City Shaping - Draft #2 (2.41 Mb)
• City Shaping - Draft #3 (3.04 Mb)

The final City Shaping report can be found on the City of Edmonton website HERE (1.86 Mb)