When the City could not get funding for the Event Centre, they built the twin pad arena first. Council will now vote on whether to hire a lobbyist to get federal funding for the event centre. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Event Centre funding

City may hire lobbyist for event centre money

Apr 19, 2024 | 5:00 PM

Having been denied the first time they applied for a federal grant to help pay for a 4,500-seat events centre, the City of Prince Albert may be looking at trying something new.

Council will discuss on Monday whether to pay $95,000 to hire a lobbyist to help them get the money.

Staff are proposing that council hire Douglas Richardson, a long time lawyer in Saskatoon who helped get federal funding for the Light Source Synchotron at the University of Saskatchewan.

He also helped create the Sask. Indian Gaming Authority and was part of the effort to bring the St. Louis Blues to Saskatchewan.

He has also spent time in the past working in Ottawa with the federal government.

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To build the event centre, the city needs provincial and federal funding and has asked the federal government to be more flexible in its criteria.

The funding was first denied because the federal government said that the Raiders as the major tenant of the new arena are a semi-professional team.

City representatives could not convince them to change their minds despite pointing out that Raiders are a junior team and wholly owned by the community.

If council decides to go forward with hiring Richardson, the money to pay him will come from the Recreation Centre Reserve, which gets money from taxes earned from businesses in The Yard.

He would be hired for a six-month term.

Detailed designs of the event centre were recently complete and the city is waiting for grant money to proceed.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com