On the heels of the collapsed Event Centre Project between the City of Calgary and Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC), former city councillor Jeff Davison called on council to look long-term..Davison championed the project from its inception in 2019 when council voted 11 to 4 in favour of a new 19,000-seat arena in Victoria Park..In an interview with the Western Standard, Davison spoke about economic and recovery benefits a new facility would offer Calgary..“This council has lost sight of what the overall benefits to building a new event centre would be,” said Davison..Rather than look at the event centre as just one building, Davison said he believes it’s important to look at the project in the context of overall economic recovery and overall downtown revitalization..When asked what went wrong with the deal in his view, Davison said he doesn’t believe it solely comes down to money..“The challenge we have is that the yardstick got moved,” said Davison..“We had a signed agreement and then all of the sudden costs started to escalate again and it was assumed those costs would be put on the partner..“That’s a challenge and what it does is erodes trust when you have a business arrangement with the private sector.”.Davison said he didn’t agree with council “villainizing one single building with a climate initiative” and said all other civic infrastructure projects should have to undergo similar considerations, including the BMO expansion and the Arts Commons transformation..What would Davison have done differently?.“It’s a simple answer,” he said..“I would have honoured the agreement that we have in place because I worked on that agreement..“We made sure we covered our bases on all of these things and, frankly, had a great deal to work together with the private sector to fund a building which the city would get all its money back from.”.Although the current deal is now dead, Davison said he’s hopeful and believes “there is a path forward” to getting people back to the table to make the deal happen..“But it’s really all going to be around can we build trust and do we have the right people at the table that can put some rigger behind this project?”.Mayor Jyoti Gondek’s Chief of Staff Stephen Carter said blame for the failed deal lies with Calgary’s former Mayor Naheed Nenshi..“No question. I think the deal that (Nenshi) set up ultimately created the failure that we’re facing today,” Carter told the Calgary Herald..Davison rejected the idea Nenshi is to blame and said, “former Mayor Nenshi was instrumental in ensuring the deal was approved and got across the line.” .As council’s chief political driver for the deal, Davison said in 2019 he believed the money spent on the deal would be “used for public good.”.“What it does is actually activates the district and encourages follow-on investment,” Davison told the Western Standard..“And so, thinking through all those new opportunities, all of those new businesses, all of those new things that would come to this district — that’s the win for Calgarians.”.The deal was finalized in December 2019 and had CSEC and the City of Calgary cost-sharing the design and construction of the project in a 50-50 agreement..By summer 2021, costs for the project had increased to nearly $609 million, but instead of the rising costs being considered a deal-breaker, CSEC agreed to fund a higher portion of the deal and agreed to accept the risk of future cost increases deemed reasonable..The deal-breaker came when the city recently insisted on an additional $19 million for infrastructure — $15 million and climate costs $4 million — costing the CSEC an additional $10 million..Upon hearing the news the deal collapsed in December, Davison took to Twitter to encourage both sides come back to the table and “find a way to salvage this process.”.In a provincial COVID-19 update on Tuesday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the failed deal was “regrettable” and blamed the city for adding “even more costs and more delays” to the project..Both CSEC and the City of Calgary were required to waive construction conditions on or before December 31, but neither did which “resulted in the termination of the Projection Framework Agreement and all associated agreements,” said the CSEC in a statement..Melanie Risdon is a reporter with the Western Standard.,.mrisdon@westernstandardonline.com
