QUEBEC CITY - There was so much verbal sparring at a parliamentary hearing in Quebec City on Thursday that arena developers might think of starting by building some penalty boxes.
Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume called for the adoption of a special bill to conclude the final version of a preliminary agreement with Quebecor that would protect the deal from legal challenges.
Labeaume vigorously defended the tentative agreement he made with the conglomerate Quebecor to manage a future arena. He emphasized the company's commitment to bring a National Hockey League team to the city.
He insisted that if legal challenges or other delays cause the project to stall, it would die and not be revived.
The mayor said his lawyers believe that the city could proceed without competitive bidding, although this was disputed before the Superior Court.
"It would have been impossible to provide a framework for (a call for tenders)," Labeaume told the commission. "It would mean that you receive the envelopes, you open them and it's over. You take the highest bidder. Whether or not that bidder has any interest in bringing a hockey club to Quebec City, it's over."
Denis De Belleval, former Director General of Quebec City, filed a motion this week to rescind the contract, arguing it is illegal for several reasons.
He was to appear before the commission later Thursday, but described the agreement to reporters as being "crazy" and "imbecilic" because it would amount to the city "subsidizing" Quebecor to the tune of $40 million per year for 25 years.
Losing an arena over a "formality"
Continuing along the same lines as Labeaume, Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau told the parliamentary commission it was urgent that the bill be passed for the same reasons evoked by the mayor.
He lauded the manner in which Labeaume reached a preliminary agreement with him on the arena's management, a deal that both he and Labeaume say must be finalized by Sept. 7. However, some Quebec City municipal councilors have said that date is not written anywhere in the preliminary agreement.
The deal would see Quebecor hand over between $110 and $200 million in rent to the city over the 25-year life of the partnership, Péladeau said..
"Will we deny ourselves a hockey team and a new arena on a formality?" Péladeau asked the commission. "I would consider that a great collective failure."
Lobby group presents numbers in support
Mario Bédard, the head of a Quebec City group called J'ai ma place looking to get the arena built and a chartered accountant, presented a series of numbers in an attempt to show the agreement between the city and Quebecor is in fact a fair one.
He said that the agreement calls for Quebecor to pay $4.3 million per year for the naming rights to the arena in the event an NHL team is playing there, and $2.2 million per year if there is no hockey team in the building. That $4.3 million total, Bédard said, would be the highest in Canada. In fact, he says it would be higher than the combined totals paid by Air Canada ($2 million) and Scotiabank ($1.3 million) for the naming rights of the arenas in Toronto and Ottawa, respectively.
Furthermore, Bédard says he ran a comparison between the Quebecor agreement and the ones in place in Pittsburgh and Anaheim, two NHL cities which recently opened new arenas financed 100 per cent by public funds.
He says the $9.3 million Quebecor would pay annually for the naming rights and rent is higher than the $8.5 million paid by the Penguins and Consol Energy in Pittsburgh and the $5.5 million paid by the Ducks and Honda in Anaheim.
"This is why I can't understand how people can say the city made a bad deal with Quebecor," Bédard said.
Khadir plans to block vote on special bill
The parliamentary commission is studying a special bill tabled by Parti Québécois MNA Agnès Maltais and supported by the majority Liberals – who have already pledged to pay half of the projected $400 million cost of the arena – that would shield the eventual agreement between Quebecor and the city from any future legal challenges.
However, the special bill would require unanimous approval from the National Assembly in order to be voted on during the current legislative session.
Quebec Solidaire's lone MNA Amir Khadir spoke to reporters immediately following Labeaume's presentation to the commission and said he would not support adding the special bill to the current legislative session's agenda, in so doing picking apart Labeaume's arguments over the urgency of the situation.
"In a call for tenders, it is the city that determines the conditions it is looking for," Khadir said. "If it's true, and I believe it is, that this entire operation is meant to have the Nordiques in Quebec City, that could have been the first condition."
Khadir also wonders why a legal agreement requires a special law to protect it from legal challenges.
"The mayor has repeated here today that there's nothing illegal, and I believe him," Khadir said. "So if there's nothing illegal, we don't need a law."
Labeaume was quick to retort Khadir's reluctance to support the bill.
"I'm just asking Mr. Khadir to like the people of Quebec City," he said. "He doesn't have to like Quebecor, he can detest me if he wants…but I'm just asking him to like the people of Quebec City."
However, even if Khadir blocks the special bill, the government would have the option of adding it to an already existing omnibus bill slated to be voted on just prior to the end of the current session, meaning the Liberals could get it passed with their majority at the National Assembly.
Bettman issues cautionary comments
At his annual state of the league press conference Wednesday prior to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said he did not want to give the people of Quebec City undue optimism regarding an NHL franchise moving there. He noted that none of the 30 current teams in the league are looking to move, and the league is not looking at expansion.
However, both Péladeau and Lebeaume have expressed their interest to Bettman in bringing a team back to Quebec City after the departure of the Nordiques in 1995, and there are several teams in the southern United States that are experiencing heavy financial difficulties.
"Gary Bettman is a very good businessman," Labeaume said. "A month ago he said there would be no transfer to Winnipeg."
Then Labeaume winked.
Action Démocratique du Québec MNA Sylvie Roy – who had previously stated her party's support would depend on what came out of the commission – walked out of the proceedings, saying that her party had not been given a sufficient platform to ask questions.
Quebec City Liberal MNA Patrick Huot area had to explain remarks he made against the government's financial support to the proposed $400 million arena. He implied that others in the Liberal Party were opposed to the $200 million that Premier Jean Charest had promised the project.
In his colourful utterance, Huot wrote to his aide, "We lowered our panties, now we separate our buttocks." He apologized for the words later.
PQ member Lisette Lapointe severely criticized party leader Pauline Marois' support of the private bill, which she described as "pathetic."
Finally, the Canadian Bar Association expressed its strong opposition to the special law, stating it would undermine the very basis of Quebec's judicial system because it would remove a constitutionally protected right to legal recourse.
The icy road of luring the NHL to the provincial capital could face more bumps.
With files from The Canadian Press
