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Only $2.3 million in property taxes have been paid to Triple B from that site as of March 31, 2017. But because the Phase One portion of the loan is accruing its own interest of 4.65% a year and had to cover the interest from the Bombers’ loan, the amount owing on that loan has skyrocketed to $117 million.

In fact, because there’s no reasonable expectation now of the Polo Park site repaying that amount, the province was forced to write off $56 million of it for the 2016-17 fiscal year, which was tacked on to the provincial deficit, money government has to borrow to cover.

So where does that leave taxpayers?

There’s still $117 million owing on the Phase One loan. However, barring a miracle, that will never be repaid in full. The expectation now is that $61 million of that loan should be repaid from property tax revenue at Polo Park, but even that’s doubtful. There could be a further write-down if there’s no reasonable expectation that all of it will be repaid. Either way, taxpayers are on the hook for it.

Meanwhile, there’s still the problem of the stadium deficiencies that have to be dealt with. Triple B took out a $17-million loan guaranteed by the province to repair major cracks and other problems with the building. The province has agreed to guarantee up to $33.1 million in loans to pay for deficiency repairs, as well as a $2.2 million line of credit. It’s unclear who will ultimately pay for the repairs as Triple B is still battling that out with contractors in the courts.

As of March 31, 2017, taxpayers are still owed $199 million, not including the deficiency loan. That number will keep climbing and more of it could be written off in the future.

This was a bad deal cooked up by the former NDP government that taxpayers will be financing for a very long time.