Quebec is Taking the Next Steps To Return to the NHL

Quebec took a major step on Tuesday towards getting the shovels in the ground for a new arena and a return to the NHL.

The Quebec city council voted in favor of an arena management agreement with Quebecor, a Canadian media giant which will seek to be the main owner of a new Quebec NHL team.

The management agreement will last at least 25 years, and Quebecor will pay between $110 million and $200 million as part of the deal.

The deal is not being accepted unconditionally by everyone.

Former Quebec City director-general Denis De Belleval wants to challenge the agreement in court because Quebecor demanded that the management of a future arena in Quebec City be handed to a non-profit organization, which De Belleval says sidesteps a provincial law.

Quebec, like Winnipeg, has been anxious to get its NHL team back since the Nordiques moved to Denver in 1995.

Talks with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman have led to speculation that a new arena is the price the NHL is demanding for a returned Nordiques team.

Quebec City mayor, Regis Lebeaume has virtually made the arena his sole issue for his municipal political future.

While there is lots of support for a returned Nordiques, including an 80,000-signature petition, many Quebecers are irate with both the municipal and provincial governments as to whether their priorities are right and that the money involved in this venture (a speculated $400 million) ought to be spent on other pressing problems, so a possible court challenge would not be completely unsupported.

To prevent such a possibility, the next stage of this long, drawn-out episode will be at the provincial level where the Quebec Provincial Government will attempt to pass Bill 204, which would protect the agreement from legal challenges.

Until that is done, the agreement between the city and Quebecor cannot be considered finalized.

Should the bill be rejected, the way would be open for a legal challenge of the agreement that could set back the construction of a new arena for years.

This untimely squabble is the result of Quebecor not making much effort to secure private partners for the whole venture.

Quebecor has the money to front a bid to get a NHL team, but does not have or will not spend the money to build a new arena, too.

Almost every major sports arena/stadium in Canada has been built completely by private funds except those involving international events like the Olympics, where a project is considered to be a Canadian and not a private venture.

The Federal Government has refused to fund the Quebec arena because they consider it a private attempt to get an NHL team, though Lebeaume and Quebecor tried to pass it off as part of an attempt to bid for the winter Olympics.

In the end, the municipal and provincial governments agreed to fund the arena.

But when the partners are governments and taxpayer money is being used, politics can get in the way, and this project has become typical of Quebec politics, where governments are drawn into things that in other provinces might be funded privately.

For now, things will be quiet at the municipal level until the fate of Bill 204 is decided.

This issue may be a political hot potato in a coming provincial election.  How the Provincial Government handles Bill 204 may also determine how taxpayers will vote.

The next provincial election may be a referendum on how badly Quebecers want to have the Nordiques back in their capital city.