The Daryl Katz campaign contribution scandal continued to grow this week, as:
- Elections Alberta launched an investigation into whether the Edmonton Oilers owner’s reported $300,000 in donations — 20% of all money raised by the Progressive Conservative Party this spring — broke the law. Meanwhile, members of the opposition New Democratic Party questioned why the Alberta government doubled fees for pharmacists giving flu shots this year — a boon to Katz’ Rexall pharmacy chain.
- Alberta finance minister Doug Horner said the province turned down both Katz’ request for arena funding and his request for a casino license regardless of the campaign money, saying that donations don’t affect policy decisions.
- Alberta municipal affairs chief Doug Griffiths says an Oilers arena would be “eligible” to use money from a provincial development fund, but insists Katz’ donations have nothing to do with this ruling, saying he “never considered him at all” in funding decisions.
- Calgary pols are starting to gripe that Edmonton shouldn’t get any extra arena money before they get the light-rail funds they’ve been promised, dammit.
At this point, the exact details of whether Katz bought votes (or tried to) for his arena project are less important than the fact that anyone in the province who didn’t already hate him surely does now, and it’s going to be nearly impossible now for him to get any support for increased funding without people metaphorically hurling rotten fruit his way. (Do they hurl metaphorical rotten fruit in Canada? Rotten donuts?) Time heals all wounds, eventually, but as Tom Ricketts can tell you, that can take an awful lot of time.
Actually, I think it’s rotten poutine they throw in Canada. It is the national dish, after all.
Rotten frozen fruit, yes. At least from October to April.
Not only has Katz fumbled what was a gift of a deal (which, for those who keep track of these things, was actually far more lucrative for him than the original deal he’d asked Council to approve… somehow in their studious ‘review’ of the proposal, the city actually decided they should give him more and get less back in return), he may have permanently poisoned the well as far as arena funding goes.
I suspect that the Mayor would still genuflect wildly if Katz were to announce that he would “graciously accept” the original deal (in fact, it may be that this embarrasing public argument is all about creating a level of acceptance for the original deal… which was in itself appalling for the taxpayers of Edmonton). But I wonder if the grudging acceptance 40% or so of Edmontonians had for that deal hasn’t evaporated (or at least been significantly compromised) by now?
One day, perhaps soon, business schools will be studying Katz Group/City of Edmonton as an example of how not to negotiate.
BTW, Neil, Katz moved his family to Vancouver last year (it’s a nice conservative $20m luxury condo in a pretty good area, I’m told, so don’t feel bad for him). Other than suggesting he doesn’t actually love Edmonton the way he said he did, this may actually play into the campaign funding issue, since non-Alberta residents are not allowed to make campaign donations for Alberta elections.
Of course, it could be that Katz funnelled these through his (resident) companies… but then, he couldn’t have used his parents names, among other things.
If you get the feeling this guy not only doesn’t read the rule book, he doesn’t even realize there is one, you are not alone…
Actually, poutine is primarily a Quebec dish for french-speaking Canadians. In Alberta they probably toss recalled infected beef.
Either way, it promises to get messier.