September 13, 2010

Canadians line up to oppose, support Quebec arena funding

And the Quebec hockey arena debate surges on unabated:

• The head of the Canadian Olympic committee wants the arena funded, because he thinks it'll help a future Winter Olympics bid.
• Conservative MP Maxime Bernier broke with his fellow Quebec Conservatives and opposed the arena plan, saying while he too dreams of the NHL returning to Quebec City, "dreaming does not make the hard financial reality go away."
• Edmonton Oilers president Kevin Lowe endorsed the Quebec arena plan. Acknowledging that some might see this as self-serving since his team is looking for arena funding as well, Lowe said, "People have got to get off that."
• The Sun newspaper chain that prominent Liberal MP Bob Rae had endorsed federal subsidies for a Quebec arena, so long as other cities get funding as well. However, Liberal blogger Jeff Jedras, who knows Rae on Facebook, reports that in fact Rae's position is "You can't just dole out money to a commercial arena in Quebec without understanding the implications for the rest of the country." Jedras also notes that the Sun is owned by the guy who wants to buy a Quebec NHL team but wants somebody other than him to pay for an arena.
• Lots of other economists and columnists are lining up against the arena funding plan, to which Edmonton Journal columnist David Staples replies that "I'm not enamoured with the new orthodoxy that no public money should ever go into these facilities." Of course, there's a big difference between "any" public money — even I don't oppose the public ever spending anything on stadiums and arenas, so long as they get something of equal value in return — and "all" public money, as would be the case in Quebec.