Alberta provincial officials were surprisingly open to some sort of involvement in funding for a new Edmonton Oilers (NHL) arena — but it’s most likely the money would go to infrastructure and not directly toward the facility.
When Mayor Stephen Mandel announced a funding plan for the new Oilers arena, the initial pushback from some provincial reps was negative: they didn’t see any need for Alberta money to flow in the facility. Since then, Premier Ed Stelmach has been more open to some level of funding, saying he needed to see the specifics of the arena-funding proposal and discuss with his cabinet.
Which will not be in the immediate future. With provincial officials focused on natural disasters in the province (wildfires and flooding), Mandel says he’ll wait to make his pitch until things settle down.
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