Source: Wikimedia Commons
A tax advocacy group is calling on all levels of government to “publicly reject subsidizing a new arena” for the National Hockey League team, the Ottawa Senators, after reports surfaced that they were “lobbying” provincial and municipal governments to fund the project.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is pushing back on the idea of the Senators adopting a similar pay scheme that the Calgary Flames received when constructing their new arena, which used government subsidies.
“Politicians need to stand up for taxpayers and tell the Ottawa Senators’ lobbyists NO,” said CTF Ontario director Noah Jarvis in a statement on Thursday.
“Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe all need to publicly reject giving taxpayers’ money to the owners of the Ottawa Senators.”
First reported by the Ottawa Citizen, the hockey club has hired Toronto-based lobbying firm StrategyCorp Inc. to engage with federal and provincial government representatives to help allocate taxpayer funding to cover the arena costs.
The taxpayer money would be used to offset expenses that would otherwise be incurred by the Senators, which has agreed to pay $37 million for the proposed land where the arena will be built.
The site is also expected to include a new hotel.
“StrategyCorp has been retained by the developer to communicate with the government to keep them informed about the transformative residential, commercial, and entertainment destination project planned for LeBreton Flats and its benefits for the Ottawa region, province, and country,” the club said.
StrategyCorp plans to meet with representatives of Aboriginal Affairs, Budget, Economic Development, Housing, Infrastructure, Municipalities, Sports, Taxation and Finance, Tourism, and Transportation to seek funding.
Additionally, the lobbying firm will ask that the Ontario provincial government play a role with “infrastructure financing and other government programs,” said StrategyCorp’s Aidan Grove-White, who is leading the project.
The meetings come at a time when Ontario Premier Doug Ford recently raised his government’s commitment to the Building Ontario Fund from $3 billion to $8 billion, which allocates funding for provincial infrastructure projects.
According to Forbes, the Ottawa Senators were valued at a little less than $1.2 billion as of December 2024.
Meanwhile, the Calgary Flames’ new arena is expected to cost more than $1.2 billion, and is being funded by both the city and the province of Alberta.
The Alberta government will fund 27 per cent of the project, along with $537 million from the city and another $356 million from the owners of the Flames.
Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer is now allegedly seeking a similar arrangement, although he has publicly stated that the organization will not be asking the City of Ottawa for taxpayers’ money.
“People need to understand this is not my arena. This is Ottawa’s arena, and I don’t need to own it. To me, I want to do something special that is going to be special for this community,” said Andlauer.
However, the CTF said that now is not the time for taxpayers to be on the hook for such a project, noting that “both the federal and Ontario governments are deep in debt.”
The federal government debt is expected to reach $1.35 trillion by the end of the year, while the Ontario government is $459 billion in debt.
Meanwhile, the city of Ottawa has proposed a 3.75 per cent property tax increase next year.
“Governments are up to their eyeballs in debt and taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund a brand-new fancy arena for a professional sports team,” said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano. “If the owners of the Ottawa Senators want to build a fancy new arena, then they should be forced to fund it with ticket sales, not tax hikes.”