QUEBEC CITY - Mayor Régis Labeaume said Tuesday negotiations on an arena deal with Quebecor Media continue, in spite of the provincial government's refusal to adopt a special law that he deemed urgent at the time.
Quebec City's executive committee ratified Monday the hiring of four experts to work on the arena deal.
Labeaume said the project would need to be re-evaluated if ever Bill 204 – which would protect the arena agreement from legal challenges even though it was reached without a call for tenders – is not adopted when the National Assembly sits in September.
Premier Jean Charest said the law would be looked at when the fall parliamentary session opened.
In the meantime, Labeaume said Quebec City continues working on the project, as evidenced by the hiring of four experts. He said negotiations will continue with Quebecor right up until the Sept. 7 deadline – which is 13 days before the opening of the fall parliamentary session – in an effort to finalize an agreement.
Labeaume, speaking at a press conference reviewing the city's 400th anniversary celebrations, avoided a question on the consequences of delays in the work on the arena.
Labeaume told the parliamentary commission on Bill 204 at the beginning of June that the law had to be adopted at all costs.
He said at the time that any delay in the progress of the $400 million project would put it in peril. Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau also said at the time that the Sept. 7 deadline was non-negotiable.
