• City of Edmonton spending $102 million for downtown site
• Province of Alberta spending $128 million for downtown site

LETHBRIDGE, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the City of Edmonton and the Province of Alberta to stop spending taxpayers’ money to build the Edmonton Oilers another facility downtown.

“Edmonton taxpayers can’t afford to give millions to an NHL team, and neither can the taxpayers of Alberta,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “Taxpayers expect three basic things from city hall, to keep their streets safe, clean and in good repair.

“If mayor and council want more people to go downtown, they need to make downtown clean and safe instead of forcing taxpayers to give money to a rich hockey team that’s already had a huge arena built for them on the taxpayers’ dime.”

On Monday, the City of Edmonton approved a plan to give taxpayers’ money to the Oilers to build an outdoor event park next to their existing downtown arena.

The downtown scheme will cost Edmonton taxpayers $102 million and it will cost Alberta taxpayers another $128 million.

The money the city is handing out to the Oilers could cover the salaries of about 100 new downtown police officers and about 145 new sanitation workers for five years.

Edmonton hiked property taxes by 5.7 per cent this year while city council took home a pay raise.

The Alberta government is borrowing $5.2 billion this year and the provincial debt is more than $80 billion. Alberta taxpayers are already paying nearly $3 billion per year in debt interest charges.

“Everyday people in Edmonton are getting hit with a property tax hike this year and taxpayers should never be forced to fund a wealthy corporation,” said Sims. “If the billionaire owner of one of the wealthiest teams in the NHL wants to operate a new event park, the team should pay for it without mooching off of hardworking taxpayers.”

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