It’s hard to believe now, but it was early in 2009 when former Premier Gary Doer said he was convinced to support a new stadium in Winnipeg when he realized that it would only cost taxpayers one million dollars. Yes, only one million dollars.
At that time the NDP government had indicated it was willing to invest $20 million in the construction of a new stadium but after it collected the associated taxes with building the new stadium the net cost to the province, and hence the taxpayers, would only be one million dollars.
Of course, that deal involved a significant private investment component and a stadium that was budgeted at $135 million. Not long after, Gary Doer was gone and Greg Selinger became Premier. And then, things started to change dramatically when it came to the stadium deal.
The private investment part of the deal fell away and the NDP decided to fill in the now missing millions with a complex Tax Increment Financing (TIF) arrangement where property taxes from the development of the old stadium land would be used to pay for the new one. And not long after that, the construction delays and the costs started to add up. By the time the stadium finally opened a couple of years ago, the cost had rising from $135 million to over $210 million. To make up the difference, the province asked the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to take on a loan that would ultimately reach about $95 million. To make matters worse, the TIF money that was supposed to be coming in didn’t develop because most of the property that is on the old stadium site is sitting vacant, as Target left that retail space some time ago.
And then there is the issue of unsettled lawsuits. Currently at the new stadium, there is a significant amount of construction ongoing. Why is there so much construction at a new stadium? The reason is that much of the cement on the concourses is cracking and is being entirely replaced. There is a lawsuit currently underway to determine who is responsible for these estimated $35 million in repairs.
What’s worse, all of this cost doesn’t include the interest on the loans, loans that are backed by taxpayers. It was reported this week that once the interest on the loans are included, the stadium will actually end up costing $375.5 million. Most of which is taxpayer paid for or taxpayer backed.
The stadium that the NDP once said under Gary Doer would cost Manitobans $1 million now could cost $375.5 million. How could this happen? There are still many unanswered questions and it’s the reason why the provincial Auditor General should perform an audit on the entire stadium project. Lessons simply need to be learned and mistakes not repeated. Unfortunately, both the NDP and Liberals are opposed to an audit. Neither seem to want to get to the bottom of these problems, and therefore both seem committed to repeating them.
