Millionaires in the National Hockey League should not be hitting up taxpayers to build their rinks..Let’s be clear: Hockey is awesome. Whether you’re cheering for the Oilers or the Flames here in Alberta, we’re united in our love of the game. Even if you’re still carrying a torch for some team named after foliage that grows east of Winnipeg, that’s OK, too — you do you..But don’t screw over taxpayers and leave us with the bill to build these teams new arenas..The City of Calgary laced up its skates along with the Government of Alberta to put taxpayers on the line to pay for building a new mega sports complex in Calgary..The catch? It is going to include the huge new NHL arena where the Calgary Flames will play..The details are, well, detailed..The City of Calgary is spending $537 million to build the NHL hockey rink while the provincial government is kicking in $330 million for the transit system and bridges around the area and for a smaller amateur sport arena next to the bigger professional one..This is a crafty way to justify spending hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars on an NHL rink..It’s the taxpayers in the City of Calgary who will be on the biggest hook because they’re the ones building the hockey rink for the millionaires on skates and kicking back in the owner’s box..The provincial government, also known as taxpayers who are working hard from Medicine Hat to La Crête, will just be paying for the infrastructure around said rink..Nothing to see here?.Who doesn’t like shiny bus stops and new bridges? What about the baby hockey rink nestled next to the big momma NHL rink? Don’t you want to support amateur sports? Won’t someone please think of the children?.Clever..This is like one of your kids saying they should be allowed to eat an entire chocolate cake because their brother is eating some broccoli, too..Nice try. And they’re clearly in cahoots for the cake..If that area of Calgary does indeed need an amateur sports facility and some new transit stations and an underpass, that’s the broccoli..We can have that broccoli conversation separate from the bargaining for chocolate cake..And this cake is huge. Big enough to put you into a diabetic coma..The price tag for Calgary taxpayers to build this NHL rink has somehow already nearly doubled in four years..In 2019, the City of Calgary agreed to split the cost of building a rink with the Flames owners, spending about $275 million each..That price tag later ballooned to a split cost of $608 million before the deal was finally scrapped..The city bailed on this plan last time around, after spending millions in taxpayers’ money thinking about doing it..Now, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek is putting city taxpayers on the line for $537 million..It’s never a good idea for taxpayers to bankroll the construction of arenas and stadiums for major league sports teams..This is a form of corporate welfare that plays on our heartstrings because so many of us love hockey..It was a bad idea for the City of Edmonton to make its taxpayers pony up more than $312 million for the new rink for the Oilers to play in. Now the mayor of Edmonton is sniffing around the provincial government for more money after the Calgary deal. See how this escalates?.It was a bad idea when Quebec was thinking about spending taxpayers’ money on a new baseball diamond in Montreal, as much as people miss the Expos..Taxpayers need governments of all levels to be prudent with their money so that there’s enough of it to pay for critically important things without going into debt or raising taxes..It’s wrong for teams in one of the most successful sports leagues on the planet to stick Alberta’s small business owners, truck drivers and farmers with their arena construction costs..Kris Sims is the Alberta director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
