Western Standard - Davison questions if ‘the right people’ are at the table to fix broken Event Centre deal

00:00:00.000 Good afternoon. I'm Melanie Risden with the Western Standard. Joining me right now is former

00:00:05.460 councillor Jeff Davison. He was also a former mayoral candidate and we're just checking in

00:00:12.560 with Jeff basically because the arena project in the city of Calgary was a real pet project of

00:00:20.860 Mr. Davison's and we wanted to check in with him and just get a feel for his thoughts on how

00:00:26.980 everything has sort of come to a complete halt and by the sounds of it the arena deal the the event

00:00:35.760 project deal is is basically gone belly up and so let's let's just check in with Jeff now and

00:00:44.480 how about you just let us know what you've been up to these days Jeff? Well you know it's a it's a

00:00:51.140 wonderful life not being elected you know you still get brought into the fray on major projects that

00:00:55.400 you've been working on but I'll tell you that there's a lot going on in the city in this province

00:00:59.740 and I'll have probably more to say that towards the end of Q1. Okay that sounds good so this arena

00:01:08.340 deal was a real pet project of yours you really were spearheading it and championing for it do you

00:01:15.120 want to give me a sort of a brief snapshot of that for you in your in your term as councillor? Yeah I

00:01:21.900 mean you know I wouldn't classify it as so much as a pet project but really saw the economic and

00:01:26.900 recovery benefits that a new facility would offer you know we really needed to think about looking

00:01:31.780 at other jurisdictions and how did they make an anchor facility really enact the development of an

00:01:36.760 entire district and that's what we've always been after here you know the entire Victoria Park area

00:01:41.460 has been you know frankly desolate for over 35 years the saddle dome was never the intended target

00:01:47.560 to spur on development and so we really wanted to look at if we brought a facility a new facility

00:01:53.640 into the community and then built the community around that what would that look like and would

00:01:57.300 it lend to recovery in the downtown core as well as economic recovery for the city and it would.

00:02:04.120 So you were championing this obviously for the for the economic impact and the and the opportunity

00:02:09.940 that it would bring to to the city so so a lot at stake with this deal you'd say?

00:02:15.480 Yeah completely a lot at stake with the deal you know I think that this council has lost sight of

00:02:20.720 what the overall benefits to building a new event centre would be. The event centre was always intended

00:02:25.540 to think about this in the context of overall economic recovery and overall downtown revitalization

00:02:30.380 so thinking about it not just as a standalone facility but how does an event centre work with

00:02:34.840 with the BMO expansion with the Arts Commons transformation with Greenline coming into the area

00:02:39.240 with the 70 plus million dollars that are being spent to revitalize Stampede Station and open up 17th Avenue

00:02:45.100 into the park. It was all intended to build a district and the district is really one of those

00:02:49.660 places where the city makes its money.

00:02:53.340 So with the handling of this deal what went wrong in your opinion?

00:02:58.860 You know I think it really doesn't come down to money quite frankly I think you know we we went through

00:03:03.420 this in 2021 where we knew that costs were going to rise inflation was going to become a significant factor

00:03:09.180 and we worked to address all of that within the confines of the original agreement we signed in 2019

00:03:13.980 and so all of that has been addressed. The challenge we have is that the yardstick got moved you know we

00:03:18.460 have a signed agreement and then all of a sudden costs started to escalate again and it was assumed that

00:03:22.860 those costs would be put on a partner. That's a challenge and what it does is it erodes trust when

00:03:28.060 you have a business arrangement with the private sector. So the the additional charges uh that were

00:03:35.580 sort of um getting added to the deal what were your thoughts on uh on some of the concerns some of

00:03:42.700 the um I I think it was the environmental uh decisions that were being made um for for the deal what

00:03:50.300 what were your thoughts there on some of the things being added and additional expenses there?

00:03:55.580 Well I think some of the challenges were I think there was some misinterpretation of what uh you

00:04:01.500 know some of the climate initiatives around the building were uh some of the things that we talked

00:04:05.660 about and always pre-prescribed in the agreements were things like flood mitigation uh making sure

00:04:10.700 that the right load factor is on the roof to handle a heavy snowfall those types of things um not in

00:04:15.980 terms of should we add solar panels to or not to a building and so when we think about it I think you

00:04:21.100 know what council really has to think through is the process by which uh they've tried to villainize

00:04:26.700 one single building with a climate initiative when uh you can't have a two-tiered policy you have to

00:04:32.460 start thinking about do we apply this now to the BMO expansion what does this look like for arts commons

00:04:37.660 all the way through to every other piece of civic infrastructure you're going to build you can't just

00:04:41.260 pick and choose one building to to make an example of. How would you have handled this differently Jeff?

00:04:47.900 Uh I I think it's a it I get asked that question all the time and it's a very simple answer I would

00:04:53.900 have honored the agreement that we have in place because I worked on that agreement uh we made sure

00:04:57.900 that we covered our bases on all of these things and frankly had a great deal to work together with

00:05:02.140 the private sector to fund a building which the city would get all its money back from. Right is it

00:05:07.820 salvageable in your opinion? Well I think that anytime you have two parties that have a common goal and I

00:05:15.020 think in this case we have Calgary Sport and Entertainment Corporation saying that Calgary has

00:05:19.180 always deserved a new event center uh we seemingly have a city council that still is in consideration

00:05:24.220 for a new event center I think that tells me that even though we've got a deal that has come to uh

00:05:30.620 come to closure uh there is a path forward if we can work together and bring everybody back to the

00:05:35.660 table and get folks talking again but it's really all going to be around can we build trust and do we have

00:05:40.700 the right people at the table that can put some rigor behind this project. Any specific uh recommendations

00:05:47.420 or advice you would want to give Mayor Gondek on this uh deal and on the situation that uh that we're

00:05:54.300 facing now? Uh not really I mean I think you know the mayor is well aware of uh of city building and has

00:06:01.980 obviously a background in that I think when it comes to projects like this it's about long-term vision

00:06:07.340 and sometimes reminding uh the council that you now sit with that it is about vision and it is about

00:06:13.420 achieving goals for all Calgarians and so you know one of the things we always knew about setting up the

00:06:18.540 event center was that even if a new council were to come in the goal was that it would at least give

00:06:23.900 you a first post to say okay well now we can really transform this area now we can actually enact a

00:06:28.780 vision rather than continually going back to square one which we've seen in the Victoria Park area for

00:06:33.900 over 30 years. Now I know that there has been some talk that this falls uh directly on Nenshi in some

00:06:44.620 way shape or form what are your thoughts there? Uh you know I completely disagree with the characterization

00:06:51.260 that this deal fell apart because of things Nenshi did uh quite frankly you know the Mayor and I have

00:06:55.980 had our ups and downs over the years but I will say that being at the table throughout the entire process

00:07:01.740 of putting this deal together uh both in 2019 and in 2021 uh former Mayor Manchi was instrumental in

00:07:07.980 ensuring that the deal was approved and got across the line and so to characterize him as being the

00:07:13.580 downfall of this I think he's just simply looking for a scapegoat that's not true.

00:07:19.260 Is there anyone you feel uh is sort of responsible for for this decision do you think there was for some

00:07:27.180 reason um I I wonder if there was a reason for this to have crumbled do you know what I mean like do you

00:07:38.140 think that there was a reason behind it or or just what are your thoughts there? Well to be quite honest I

00:07:45.100 think it's the trust factor right I think you know we had a signed agreement the the goalpost moved on

00:07:49.980 that agreement and that's a challenge and and people will draw their conclusions from there I think

00:07:53.820 everybody's looking for somebody to blame when a deal like this falls apart. The reality is is we

00:07:59.100 have to not look in the rearview mirror and we should look at paving the road ahead of us and so

00:08:03.100 how do we put this deal back together knowing that the benefits are significant for Calgarians

00:08:08.700 the benefits are there for downtown revitalization and overall economic recovery and those are the

00:08:13.420 things we should focus on moving forward with this new council. Yeah it definitely during the press

00:08:18.780 conference yesterday it sounded very um very much like premier Jason Kenney was sort of pointing

00:08:24.860 towards the city of Calgary for for um the deal sort of going belly up um would you say that's an

00:08:33.980 accurate he said he was um you know it was regrettable would you say that uh that the city really does need

00:08:41.820 to rethink its position on this? Well I think it is regrettable that the deal fell apart I do think

00:08:48.780 that you know both the city and CSEC need to figure out if there is a common goal that can be achieved

00:08:53.340 still and work towards that common goal uh if possible and so you know I don't choose to believe

00:08:58.540 that this deal is dead I choose to believe that we may have to forge a new path I think a lot of the

00:09:03.020 research and a lot of the justification as to why we would want to do this project has been done

00:09:07.020 frankly it's been done in depth over the past six years so we need to go back rethink all of those

00:09:12.060 things do they still apply uh do the benefits that this facility would bring still exist and then is

00:09:17.260 there a path forward to make that partnership work? And the benefits why don't you highlight a few in

00:09:22.140 your opinion uh again I know you championed for this your opinion what does this bring to Calgary?

00:09:27.580 What does this bring to our to our economy? Well you know the benefits in this case are vast right

00:09:33.660 there was a lot of work done to look at other jurisdictions to see where a new event center

00:09:37.820 coupled with building of a community could actually help revitalize a downtown and overall economic

00:09:43.100 recovery so those exist but there's key ties between building the event center and the new BMO

00:09:48.060 expansion and really developing that district all of that then ladders into overall downtown recovery

00:09:53.340 because it's really not about just the hockey deal in this it's about putting together a building

00:09:58.460 and a deal that the city owns the building we own the land we get all of our money back

00:10:03.660 but what it does is actually activates the district and encourages follow-on investment

00:10:08.620 and so thinking through all of those new opportunities all of those new businesses all

00:10:11.980 of those new things that would come to this district that's the win for Calgarians.

00:10:17.260 Right well let's hope that they are able to come back together at some point

00:10:23.740 and find some common ground because I do agree with you I see I see a lot of advantage for our city

00:10:30.620 you know even just to to help further put it on the map for events and and you know even CEOs of big

00:10:40.300 companies as Jason Kenney was saying you know trying to entice companies to come to Calgary I mean it's

00:10:46.140 it's good to show that the city is really championing for infrastructure and growth and and these kinds of facilities for sure.

00:10:55.820 Yeah it's it's one of those scenarios where you have to think about all of these things in the

00:11:00.540 context of working together you know to create the why people want to be here in Calgary not not the need

00:11:05.660 to be here right because nobody really needs to be anywhere anymore and so as we look at overall

00:11:10.220 economic recovery and try to bring new companies to Calgary thinking about all the benefits that

00:11:14.940 Calgary has that people want to be a part of some of the challenge I think a lot of jurisdictions have

00:11:19.340 faced is that when companies start to leave all of those season ticket holders leave as well and that

00:11:23.980 starts to erode your base for now programming in a lot of these events and and facilities and so

00:11:29.020 you have to think through it's not just about 44 hockey games a year it's about programming this

00:11:33.420 facility 250 to 300 days of the year with concerts that are currently going to places like Vancouver

00:11:39.420 and Edmonton and Franklin Saskatoon it's it's that type of community activation that you need if

00:11:44.060 you're going to be successful with putting an event center together.

00:11:46.540 So disappointed but still hopeful I'm assuming disappointed but still hopeful and I think you

00:11:56.380 know again where we have two parties that seemingly are talking about the same goal I think there's a

00:12:02.700 path to to hopefully putting things back together rebuilding trust and getting on with delivering the

00:12:07.980 facility that Calgarians have always desired for this area.

00:12:10.540 Well Jeff thanks for all the work you put into uh to bringing this to uh as far along as it has made it

00:12:18.380 and uh I guess here's hoping for the city that um that another deal can be can be brought together

00:12:24.620 thanks for sharing your thoughts with us today Jeff.

00:12:26.540 You bet, thank you.

Western Standard - January 05, 2022

Davison questions if ‘the right people’ are at the table to fix broken Event Centre deal

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