February 06, 2004
Loonie biz
In north of the border news, Ontario is mulling a request from the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs for help refurbishing the University of Toronto's Varsity Arena and building a 25,000-seat stadium for the CFL's Toronto Argonauts. Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, which owns both teams, wants the government to guarantee part of the $100 million in construction loans for the project, though it's not clear how much this would end up costing the province; Toronto Mayor David Miller backs the project, but has said he wouldn't accept it costing the public tax money.
Meanwhile, one province to the east, the Montreal Canadiens are asking for property tax breaks from Quebec, along with an income tax surcharge on visiting teams that would be funneled to the team - a scheme used to subsidize other Canadian NHL teams that claim they're hampered by the weak Canadian dollar from competing with U.S. teams. Of course, if they've checked the exchange rate lately, they might want to come up with a new argument.
