Quebecor demanded that the management of a future arena in Quebec City be handed to a non-profit organization that would be run by the multi-national corporation, mayor Régis Labeaume said Tuesday after the city's municipal council gave its approval to a management agreement.

Last winter, Quebec City said the arena management contract could be given out without a call for tenders because the law allowed for an exception when giving contracts to non-profits.

Labeaume said it was Quebecor's desire that the management be officially handled by a non-profit, and that it changed nothing when it comes to the city's involvement in the agreement.

"Non-profit or not, it changes absolutely nothing," he said. "It was Quebecor's choice and it doesn't bother us at all."

A Quebecor spokesman said the company had no comment.

Former Quebec City director-general Denis De Belleval, said using a non-profit was specifically meant to sidestep provincial law.

"They put that in the contract to put a shine of legality on it by saying, we're giving it to a non-profit, so it's legal," he said. "What they couldn't do with a for profit corporation, they are doing with a non-profit."

De Belleval is challenging the city's agreement with Quebecor in court.

That agreement – officially being made with the non-profit that will be run by Quebecor, the Corporation de la gestion de l'amphithéâtre de Québec – was made public Tuesday.

The non-profit will be charged with collecting arena-related revenues in order to hand a portion of them to the city.

The agreement also includes to leases with Quebecor subsidiaries, one charged with managing the arena's entertainment dates and another charged with presenting games of an eventual NHL team.

A third lease pertains to the arena's naming rights, which would belong to Quebecor.

Labeaume said Quebec City has the right to question Quebecor when it comes to profits in order to ensure the city gets its rightful share of revenues.

"We threw in some checks and balances," Labeaume said.

Last March when an agreement in principle was announced, Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau said his company would pay between $110 and $200 million over 25 years. Labeaume said Tuesday that Quebecor is now obligated to honour that financial commitment for the life of the 25-year agreement, which wasn't the case before.

The clause would remain valid even if Quebecor decided to move its hockey team out of the city.

"If Quebecor gets an NHL team and, under the worst-case scenario that I don't feel will ever come to pass, decides to sell it after 10 years, it would still have to pay rent on the building for another 15 years," Labeaume said. "And that is important, mainly in terms of keeping the team. It's incentive to not leave."

However, the naming rights fees on the building could drop if Quebecor is unable to get an NHL team in Quebec City by 2020, something that was not included in the agreement in principle.

Finally, the agreement will not be finalized until the National Assembly passes Bill 204 – which would protect the deal from legal challenges – and it could also be nullified next winter once the estimated $400 million in construction costs becomes more concrete.

Labeaume refused to say at what point a cost overrun on the building would cause the agreement to be nullified.