Millions of dollars to Hockey Canada ahead of world junior tournaments

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Alberta’s provincial government, its three largest cities and their partner agencies contributed more than $4 million to Hockey Canada over a four-year period leading up to the world junior hockey championships, agency records show. Revenue Canada (CRA).

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Figures are taken from Hockey Canada’s audited financial statements and obtained by Postmedia.

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They point out that the province provided $2.25 million in fiscal years 2018 and 2019, before the start of the 2021 tournament in December 2020.

The City of Edmonton contributed a total of $500,000 between fiscal years 2019 and 2021.

Tourism Edmonton and the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation — the city’s independent tourism arm since renamed Explore Edmonton — contributed $625,000, records show.

Details on how the money was used are unclear, with the province only saying it was used to support the tournament.

The city provided further details in a written statement from its Director of Partnerships and Event Strategy, Community Services, Ronna Bremer, who wrote that « these sponsorship dollars have been made available to support the event, including event operations, community activation, (and) marketing.”

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Both the city and province said they had not provided additional funding for the restart of the 2022 tournament which took place entirely in Edmonton earlier this month.

Other contributions to Hockey Canada included $250,000 from the City of Red Deer in fiscal year 2020 and $500,000 from Tourism Calgary – a civic partner of the City of Calgary – in fiscal year 2021, although he claims he « did not invest in the Edmonton event.

Red Deer had been named co-host of the 2021 tournament but only hosted four games of the original 2022 event which was canceled due to multiple COVID-19 outbreaks.

The City of Red Deer did not respond to questions about its contribution.

Total funding provided to Hockey Canada by the governments of Alberta and their partner organizations is $4,375,000, according to CRA documents.

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Over the same four-year period, the federal government provided just under $19 million.

Hockey Canada’s fiscal year ends June 30, according to CRA documents.

Dan Mason, professor of sports management at the University of Alberta, said that while economists are almost unanimous in concluding that hosting sporting events is not a major economic driver, the government is pursuing and supports these events for other reasons.

« One of the things sporting events can do is shine a spotlight for a brief moment on a particular area, » he said.

« Cities are competitive with each other when it comes to things like…investment, tourism, business relocation. »

Moshe Lander – an economist at Concordia University in Montreal – adds that there are limits to these image enhancements, especially in Canada where Edmonton is already known.

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« When you broadcast this in Europe, I don’t know if people look at footage of the Edmonton skyline saying, ‘Okay, we were planning on going to Disneyland, but now we have to go to Edmonton. « »

The most recent tournament received far less interest from fans than previous events due to widespread backlash over Hockey Canada’s handling of sexual assault allegations.

Other recent contributions outlined in CRA records include $2.3 million from the BC government ahead of the 2019 tournament in Vancouver and Victoria, as well as $250,000 from the province of Nova Scotia. Scotland in 2021 and $240,000 from the City of Halifax in 2020.

The 2023 tournament is scheduled to begin in December and will be co-hosted by Halifax and Moncton, NB

mblack@postmedia.com

Twitter @ByMatthewBlack