City votes to extend downtown tax levy, Oilers event-park not guaranteed

Public hearings still underway as Edmontonians give city council their opinions on supporting the Oilers Event Park using a levy. Jeremy Thompson reports.

After two days of heavy discussion and public hearings, city council has made its decision to proceed with a downtown tax levy extension that could push the Oilers event-park ahead.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

The Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG), the province and the City of Edmonton originally laid out plans for the event park adjacent to Rogers Place in February following the 2025 Budget.

“These kinds of opportunities don’t come our way all the time,” said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi. “We have a very prominent, committed organization in our city, who has a demonstrated history of delivering for Edmonton.”

The Alberta government has committed almost $130 million to projects in the Ice District if the city pitches in millions of public money through the downtown Community Revitalization Levy (CRL).

Since 2014, the CRL has funded parks infrastructure upgrades and other catalyst projects in the core. However, the future of the levy has been a topic of discussion over the last few days while council considered a 10-year extension of it.

Sohi said the original CRL deal made in 2015 has garnered results that “no one could have imagined.”

“I was skeptical of those returns … our downtown has seen that investment of close to $4 billion.”

The city has said the CRL helped generate nearly $5 billion-worth of public and private investment and development, including Rogers Place, towers downtown and LRT expansion.

The mayor said he’s looking most forward to the housing project attached to the event-park that will create homes for nearly 10,000 people.

“In my mind, this is a win-win situation,” said Sohi.

But the deal has been phrased as a take-it-or-leave it situation where if the city doesn’t go for the OEG event park, they don’t get to reap the benefits of the CRL.

While several councillors said there was information lacking in the project and the CRL extension details, the motion was approved 9-4 with councillors Andrew Knack, Michael Janz, Erin Rutherford and Jo-Anne Wright opposed.

Other councillors raised issues of areas outside of downtown that could use the city’s attention and investment instead of extending the CRL downtown, such as the Stony Plain Road area, Happy Beer Street and the Coliseum.

According to a study done by the OEG, the event-park will add $18.4 million to the local gross domestic product and support 216 jobs.

The province allotted $52 million to the event-park in its 2025 budget. The total cost of the project is about $250 million.

By extending the CRL to 2044, several projects will be considered for investment, including the Winspear Centre expansion, the event-park, attainable housing program, the downtown infrastructure fund and Village at Ice District servicing.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson, Craig Ellingson and Steven Dyer.