CALGARY—A city councillor wants to tear up the deal to put public funds toward a new arena as Calgary faces budget cuts.

Coun. Evan Woolley says city council should reconsider the deal for a $550-million event centre, as council calls the building, in Victoria Park. Instead, Woolley says the money should go to the Green Line LRT expansion, a new downtown police station and affordable housing.

City council approved the arena deal in July — just eight days after it was publicly unveiled — splitting construction costs down the middle with Flames ownership group the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. (CSEC). In total, the city is on the hook for $290.4 million with added land transaction costs and expenses to demolish the Saddledome.

CSEC will also get the option to acquire the land where the Enoch Sales house previously stood, as well as the site of the Victoria Park bus barns.

As of Wednesday, “positive and productive” negotiations are ongoing between the city, CSEC and the Calgary Stampede, according to a statement from the city. But the legal details of the agreement aren’t yet finalized.

Woolley plans to put his proposal in front of council on Thursday, as this year’s difficult talks on the 2020 budget wear on. Out of the money set aside for the arena, Woolley is asking for $200 million for the Green Line, $45 million for the Calgary Police Service to build a downtown station and $45 million for deferred Calgary housing maintenance.

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He said Wednesday that a new arena isn’t “of the utmost priority” following last month’s provincial budget. Besides unexpected cuts to the city’s main source of infrastructure funding from the Alberta government, Calgary lost nearly $200 million in grants for transit and flood mitigation projects, and changes to police funding left CPS facing a $13-million budget hole.

The enormous Green Line LRT project is in an especially precarious position after the province pushed back its promised $1.5-billion share of transit funding, with Calgary getting just $75 million over the next four years.

“We are asking, across our corporation, every single business unit and department to stretch and optimize infrastructure assets,” Woolley said. “I think the Flames will appreciate the financial position we find ourselves in, and we need to come to the table to discuss a different way to fund this arena.”

Woolley was one of the four councillors who voted against confirming the deal in July, along with George Chahal, Druh Farrell and Jeromy Farkas. But unless numerous councillors have changed their mind about the arena deal, it would be impossible for Woolley’s new motion to pass. Reconsidering the deal would take at least 10 votes, not just a majority of eight votes. Farkas, for his part, said he plans to support the move.

Coun. Ward Sutherland, a proponent of the event centre, called Woolley’s motion “irresponsible” and “disappointing.”

“We know that there’s no chance of this passing. There’s confidence that this is the right project, so this is just for press — nothing else,” he said.

At the time the arena deal was introduced, the city projected estimated returns of $400.3 million over the deal’s 35-year period. Economists argued that figure doesn’t account for how the years the agreement covers will affect future cash flows.

Sutherland and Coun. Jeff Davison, the chair of city council’s event centre assessment committee, both maintain the event centre will deliver economic benefits that make it worthwhile, even during tough economic times.

“If you want to create investor confidence in your city, which ultimately leads to public trust, you need to stand behind the decisions that have been made as a council and move forward as a city,” Davison said. He added that the province isn’t contributing to the cost of building the arena, so the provincial budget doesn’t change things.

Earlier this week, Mayor Naheed Nenshi also signalled he isn’t interested in rehashing the arena debate, calling it a “distracting” issue during budget week.

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“That is a decision council has made, and frankly nothing has changed in the economy between July and now that would make me say, ‘We’ve got to rethink our capital projects,’ ” he said.

Woolley disagreed.

“To say that nothing has changed between council’s decision in July and where we are today forgets the fact that we had a provincial budget come out,” he said.

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