The Ottawa Senators are hoping to bring their talents to the city’s downtown core. Specifically, the team is looking to set up a new home on a plot of land at LeBreton Flats, along Albert St. between Preston Street and City Centre Avenue. However, recent news that the team has hired Toronto-based lobbying firm StrategyCorp to engage with provincial and federal government officials has sparked pushback from some who worry the team is hoping to see tax dollars cover some of the mega project. “We have so many issues. This is not one of them. This is fun and it’s enjoyable, but it’s not where our taxpayer dollars should be going right now,” said Annelies Van Oers who lives near the proposed site of the new arena. “There’s so much homelessness, we have so many other priorities right now, our road infrastructure is falling apart. We have so many other issues.” Others are on board with a potential injection of tax dollars, assuming the team isn’t given a blank cheque. “We ante up for everything in this city, so why not for something that people are going to love when it’s all done? Yes, I’ll ante up,” said Sens fan Richard MacAndrew. “It’s going to bring a lot more people, businesses are going to thrive, restaurants are going to thrive, and hopefully after the game, parties are going to thrive.” What isn’t entirely clear is if the Sens are truly looking to see government support. When asked to clarify whether StrategyCorp is lobbying the federal and provincial governments for financial help in building a new arena, the team did not provide a definitive answer, instead sending CTV News Ottawa the following statement: “StrategyCorp has been retained by the developer to communicate with 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.” In a recent interview with Rogers Sportsnet, Senators’ owner Michael Andlauer said there have been no discussions about funding from government for a new arena. According to the federal lobbyist registry, six lobbyists with StrategyCorp Inc. have registered since September to discuss the LeBreton Flats plans with federal officials. The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada’s website shows they were discussing “policies and programs” with federal officials, and the subject matters included “Aboriginal Affairs, Budget, Economic Development, Housing, Infrastructure, Municipalities, Sports, Taxation and Finance, Tourism and Transportation.” The Ontario government’s lobbyist registry shows three officials from StrategyCorp have registered to lobby on behalf of the team. According to the firm, they are looking to have “discussions with government regarding arena eligibility for infrastructure financing and other government programs.” Arena not an economic boost, expert says Moshe Lander, a professor of economics at Concordia University argues, including taxpayer money won’t provide much in the way of return on investment. “It’s civic pride and nothing more than that. For anybody who thinks that the Senators add to the local economy, you’re speaking as a sports fan. You’re thinking from the heart, you’re not thinking from the brain,” he said. “There is no evidence that suggests that sports teams contribute to the local economy in any meaningful way.” Lander says shifting the city’s center for major events away from Kanata and building a new facility closer to the downtown core will simply move the economic activity from one area to the next, without adding a meaningful number of jobs. “When, for example, the Blue Jays make a deep run into the World Series, all of the cameras descend on downtown Toronto, the harbourfront and the Skydome and what they show is that they’re full, and they talk to the local pub owner who says ‘this is the greatest and we haven’t seen anything like this in 30 years!’ and that’s all true,” said Lander. “Except, for the fact that, if no net jobs were created, then where is this money coming from? If it’s coming from locals, then that means when they get the Visa bill, they’re going to go ‘oh gosh, we have to scale back.’ And so, when they disappear, you don’t see the local retail outlet saying, ‘Where did everyone go?’ or the local restaurant saying, ‘It’s now deader than it was on a regular night.’” He adds, the financial benefits of tourists coming in for sports or other major events is real, but he questions whether a new arena would skew the numbers in a notable way. “Even if you say, ‘We’re going to build a hotel around this new arena,’ that’s great, but they better be new tourists, otherwise I want you to check out the Lord Elgin when you find out 20 per cent fewer people are going there, because they’re staying at a closer hotel to their final destination.” On the question of government funds covering any of the project, Senators leadership has insisted that a new arena should not cost Ottawa taxpayers money. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe agrees, saying in August, there was “no appetite” for municipal funds to go towards the project. With files from CTV Ottawa’s Josh Pringle.
