Push for transparency on Lansdowne 2.0
Prominent ex-public servants call for financial data on revamp.
A group of prominent figures from Ottawa government, legal and political circles are challenging Mayor Mark Sutcliffe to release more details about a proposed second phase of development around the city’s football stadium at Lansdowne Park, likening the rush to approve the project to the ill-fated light-rail system.
Former Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, former Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick, and retired senator Jim Munson wrote to Sutcliffe today, calling on him to release financial details of the Lansdowne 2.0 project.
Former Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, community organizer Carolyn Mackenzie and lawyers Paul Champ, Penny Collenette and Richard Wagner also co-signed.
In October, city council’s finance committee is scheduled to start studying a proposal for Lansdowne that would see increased investment by private-sector developers and additional housing constructed on the current location of TD Arena (née the Civic Centre), the hockey arena built under the football stadium’s north stands in the 1960s.
But the group says councillors will have only 10 business days in advance to assess a staff report on the estimated $332 million plan and its financial implications for ratepayers – not enough time to study what would be this council’s largest expenditure.
The staff report will be accompanied by a report from consulting firm Ernst and Young, who “are currently conducting rigorous financial analysis on the 2022 funding strategy, as well as cash flow and financing projections that Council approved and directed staff to investigate further,” according to Sean Moore, director of the Lansdowne Park Redevelopment Project
The new proposal from the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), calls for three additional residential towers – one as high as 40 storeys – with 1,200 units, construction of a new north stand (at an estimated cost of $138 million) and a new arena and events centre ($183-million arena), built partially on the current park east of the stadium.
The city says it is “committed to robust and city-wide public engagement” with consultations ongoing since March.
After sitting largely unchanged for decades, the sprawling parking lots around the football stadium underwent a massive overhaul beginning in 2012, with the addition of condos, retail, restaurants, and a movie theatre.
The city’s partnership with OSEG also upgraded the stadium with construction of new stands on the south side.
The development never brought in much money to city coffers, but proponents of the second phase are promising a “waterfall” of revenues from the stadium, enhanced retail space and from the “air rights” for the residential buildings.
The letter calls on Sutcliffe to answer a long list of questions about the financing of the project, including how much debt the city will take on, where the revenues will come from, any surcharges that will be added to tickets for the Redblacks, Ottawa 67’s and other events.
Crucially, the group wants clarity about who will be on the hook if the second phase loses money.
“All taxpayers could come to regret this if we don’t understand what Council is ‘signing up for’ before giving the greenlight,” the letter warns.
“During the LRT Inquiry, we learned that important information was withheld from Council that ‘prevented councillors from fulfilling their statutory duties to the people of Ottawa,’” the letter says.
It calls the secrecy around Lansdowne 2.0 “part of a concerning approach taken by senior City officials to control the narrative by the nondisclosure of vital information or outright misrepresentation.”