EDMONTON - Premier Alison Redford vowed Thursday to make her government a partner in Edmonton’s maturation as the “crown jewel” of Alberta, though she again cast doubt on civic leaders’ hopes of securing additional funding for a new downtown arena.
Speaking to a crowd of about 1,500 at her annual Edmonton leader’s dinner, she said a strong provincial capital is essential to realize Alberta’s ambitions of global energy leadership.
“We will need our capital, our crown jewel, to be the best it can be. With the right plan, it will be,” she told attendees to the $500-a-plate event at the Shaw Conference Centre.
As a key piece of that progression, she mentioned plans for a new downtown Royal Alberta Museum that is scheduled to open in 2015.
“A vibrant capital depends on a bright and stimulating cultural scene,” the premier said. “I was downtown (Thursday) by City Hall and I thought about the core of this city and the beautiful buildings, the galleries, the parks, and to see the vibrancy of activity at lunchtime is just tremendous, and RAM will simply add to that.”
With Mayor Stephen Mandel seated nearby sporting a bow tie, she referred to him as a good friend with whom she enjoys a common vision on the importance of building communities.
Redford said her government will help Mandel’s government do that by streamlining the grant system, giving cities more control on how they spend infrastructure money from programs such as GreenTRIP and the Municipal Sustainability Initiative. She also said the province is working on a big city “charter” that could provide additional fiscal powers for Edmonton and Calgary.
However, the premier was unclear about whether such reforms could help Edmonton advance another project Mandel has identified as crucial to the city’s development — a new downtown arena.
Earlier Thursday, while talking to reporters, Redford said the province still had no plans to provide additional funding for the arena.
“Our perspective on that hasn’t changed, nor will it,” she said. “We’ve been very clear with respect to our position.”
Her remarks came a day after the first detailed drawings of the proposed facility were released to the public. The plan for the $450-million structure calls for a $100-million contribution from the province. Though Redford has repeatedly said she will not provide special funding, Mandel told reporters Wednesday he believes the city will find a way to get the money.
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