STOP CORPORATE WELFARE NOW! No Public Money for Private Infrastructure!
We need to call on all levels of government to STOP CORPORATE WELFARE NOW! The taxes that working families pay are for core services NOT to pad the profits of a BILLIONAIRE.
This past week the City has reached a tentative $408.2-million agreement to fund a downtown event park, demolish Northlands Coliseum, and support a private development near Rogers Place. The event park, projected to cost $250 million, will be city-owned with one-third of its time reserved for public use. The deal also includes $37.5 million from the province for the Coliseum’s demolition, and nearly $54 million in public funding for the Village at Ice District, a commercial and residential development held by OEG. So far this is an acceptance of the MOA not a signed agreement, but the province made it clear that they will withdraw their funding unless the tax payer continues to bolster the assets of our local billionaire. If approved, the city will finance 49.5% of the infrastructure site servicing at Village at Ice District, while the actual developer pays only 4%. It goes a step further, just like the arena ALL REVENUESgenerated by these investment go to make our billionaire even richer.
You may remember the province’s controversial decision last year to contribute $330 million to assist Calgary’s new arena project, including money for road and LRT improvements and to tear down the Saddledome. What you may not remember is that working families paid for ALL the infrastructure improvements needed, a $613.7-million arena, winter garden, LRT platform, practice rink, and land for the Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG) to profit from.
In essence, working families has already paid the bill that the Province is now saying they have money for. Under normal circumstances it would make sense that as the group who paid the bill we would get to decide how it was spent. Whether it be paying off the debt we incurred to do it in the first place, or using the money to address other much needed infrastructure deficits throughout the city, or even just using it to reduce the current tax burden. BUT in this case we need to get the permission from the OEG with what we do with our money and of course they want us to pay for their nice things!
We NEED City Council to stand up to the OEG in the interest of working families. We need to stop giving our tax dollars to the people who need it least! STOP CORPORATE WELFARE NOW!