Article content

A budget amendment to reallocate $290-million committed for a new Calgary Flames arena toward three city projects was defeated in a council vote Friday.

The motion brought forth by Coun. Evan Woolley sought to redirect the public money toward the Green Line LRT project, reopening the downtown police station and affordable housing.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Council votes 11-4 to reaffirm arena deal with Flames Back to video

The motion, which failed in vote of 11-4 on Friday, required a supermajority of 10 votes to pass.

Woolley said he held “no misconceptions” about the challenges of securing the 10 votes required.

Still, he called the result “disappointing.”

“If we’ve asked Calgarians to dig deep, if we’ve asked transit to dig deep, if we’re looking deeply on all the projects that we’re delivering on, why is it that a capital project that will benefit the few and will help a single private company that owns the Calgary Flames — why are they immune from us digging deep?” he said.

The proposal would have seen $200 million allocated to the Green Line — a project that was recently thrown into disarray after the province announced it would delay $480 million in funding over the next four years.