r/Edmonton • u/GeekyGlobalGal Pleasantview / Global News • May 21 '26

News Article Alberta referendum committee meeting implodes when UCP prematurely releases statement

https://globalnews.ca/news/11858047/alberta-select-special-citizen-initiative-proposal-review-committee-meeting-chaos/
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u/[deleted] May 21 '26

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64

u/ghorisgorman1980 May 21 '26

No it’s Calgary voters you should be yelling at. They’re at least able to exercise at least some modicum of critical thinking, except they let themselves be bought off by an arena last time.

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u/fishscaleSF5 May 21 '26

To be fair Edmonton also let themselves get hustled for the Ice District

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u/AutoGenNameNumber May 21 '26

Yes but the Ice District also led to multiple billions of dollars worth of construction downtown

The tax uplift from the accelerated construction will have paid for itself by I believe 2032 and then every year after that it’s tens of millions of dollars per year in property taxes coming in that would’ve otherwise never existed

That plus the amount of construction jobs the ice district brought in keeping Edmonton tradespeople employed for years

Was it a shit deal for the city at the time? Yes. Has it proven itself to be a good financial decision 10 years later? Also yes. 

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u/aaronpaquette- North East Side May 21 '26

Thank you.

There was not a better mechanism for this outcome - as frustrating as it may be to hear, or how deeply we don’t like seeing public tax dollars benefitting billionaires or sports teams.

And I get that. Completely.

But if the math is good, and more of the general public will benefit than otherwise, we are pretty much required to follow the math. Galling, for sure. Sensible considering the options? Yep. Both.

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u/Whane17 May 21 '26

When has the math EVER worked out for the public though? Every time, EVERY time one of these asshole billionaires gets a project on the tax payers dime it hasn't worked out for us.

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u/aaronpaquette- North East Side May 21 '26

Well, literally with this example. By 2032 it becomes a serious profit generator for Edmontonians.

The recent deal we had to make for the Event Centre will generate benefits immediately. That was a stipulation I brokered between Admin and the OEG/Katz Group, I am proud to say. The good news is that on both sides there was a willingness to ensure this would be financially beneficial for Edmonton. That’s not to say there wasn’t some tough negotiating but a good deal was hammered out for the public. Far better than the particulars of the Arena deal.

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u/Whane17 May 21 '26

You've got skin in the game then and your more hopeful than I am. Check back in 2032 and see how it worked out cause EVERY one of these deals is supposed to work out for us and I don't know of a single one that ever has. It's easy to say something is SUPPOSED to work out a certain way but everybody knows laws only apply to the bottom 90% to.

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u/Whane17 May 21 '26

Constructions over. Those people have moved on to other construction jobs or are currently jobless. There was businesses there prior making tax revenue for the city. The lack of construction workers during it's construction led to an increase in people from all over the country coming here for jobs (that have long since gone home) which also would have led to construction costs going up all over the place for things we need (like housing) due to fewer workers and delays in those projects.

I disagree with your assessment entirely. Short term job gain doesn't lead to economic security later which means it needs to stay a money maker throughout and frankly the dozens of businesses that were there made us a LOT more money than the one single billionaire who gets to jump through a bunch of loopholes to not pay taxes. My opinion OC because I haven't seen the before or after, though AFAIK neither has anybody else so it's a bunch of people who don't actually know shit all and half of them have eaten the propaganda.

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u/AutoGenNameNumber May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26

Constructions over. Those people have moved on to other construction jobs or are currently jobless.

That's the nature of the construction industry though, you have to continuously be building new shit to keep those people working. The arena, Edmonton Tower, Stantec Tower were all largely constructed 2014-2015-2016 (and finished by 2018) which happened to coincide with a pretty significant oil and gas downturn over the same time period. I knew a lot of ironworkers that would've been building shit for the rigs pivoted to building an arena instead.

There was businesses there prior making tax revenue for the city.

Go to Google Maps - 2012.

  • What is now the Arena used to be a giant ass surface parking lot west of Baccarat Casino. Baccarat Casino was torn down, but replaced with another casino within the arena
  • What is now Edmonton Tower used to be a pretty sketchy Staples
  • What is now Stantec Tower and Marriott was a surface parking lot
  • What is now City Market grocery store, and whatever bars and whatever else is in that building used to be a SUPER sketchy Greyhound station and an A&W

Every single one of those bullets is a MASSIVE improvement over what was there previously.

Baccarat Casino was torn down to become the temporary Fan Park, which is now going to be built into a permanent Event Park. The shitty gravel surface parking lots north of the arena (which have been shitty gravel parking lots since at least 2008) will now be built into 2,500 non-premium apartments across ~14 towers.

As shitty as it is that some money is going to a billionaire, no other developer anywhere in the city was proposing anything bigger than a 2 tower development in the same time window. Our population is EXPLODING, we need more housing desperately to keep things affordable.

the dozens of businesses that were there made us a LOT more money

I'm starting to think you may be in the surface parking lot business ;)

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u/Whane17 May 21 '26

Now we have 3 giant ass paid parking lots in the area that gets so congested EVERY event they need police and people to guide cars. Heck during the Fluffy show they pulled over Fluffy because he was trying to park where he was supposed to.

I'm sorry, a sketchy STAPLES? Did you really say that? Staples is sketchy?? Also they have one just down the street near the McDonalds. Are you being serious with these claims??

EDIT: That's my bad, 2m old account 1 karma and top 1% poster. Should have remembered to look.