Ottawa City HallVoteTracker

2022–2026 term

City CouncilMeeting 25

Lansdowne Partnership Plan - Authorization to Proceed to the Next Steps in the Redevelopment Report

Council was asked to

  1. staff be directed to prepare a Mitigation Plan for Lansdowne Park, the preparation of which is to be funded from the $10M budget authority for next steps identified in recommendation 2.e., to ensure a strategic plan for the City is in place should OSEG decide to default on the Partnership before the end of the agreement
  2. the Mitigation Plan assume continued operation of the REDBLACKS and 67’s at Lansdowne Park (whether municipally-owned, community-owned or privately-owned) and include the following: Options for: Maintaining and operating Lansdowne Park in-house, using traditional procurement where necessary for contracted services; and, Establishing a non-profit corporation or board to maintain and operate the park; and, Partnering with an existing non-profit organization to maintain and operate the park, on behalf of the city. A comprehensive maintenance plan for the stadium and arena to ensure that they are both maintained in a good state of repair and an accompanying funding strategy. That the mitigation plan be provided at the next project gate in Q1 2024
Lost

12 for, 13 against

Affects
City-wide
Agenda item
7.2
Motion number
2023 - 25-08
City file number
ACS2023-PRE-GEN-0009

How each member voted

The recitals

  • in 2010, the City of Ottawa entered into the Lansdowne Park Partnership Plan (LPP | Partnership) with the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) to redevelop and revitalize Lansdowne Park
  • the initial terms and conditions of the LPP were established in 2012, and were based on an asset revitalization plan that balanced the risks between the parties, established a fair relationship where the City and OSEG aligned their respective investments and risks so that the City had a strong chance of repayment on its deemed equity, and a reasonable chance of a positive return on the stadium investment, and that OSEG would be able to generate a reasonable return on their investment
  • the LPP has generated no positive cashflows since inception, and no distributions to either partner, other than the repayment of the cost of the repairs to the arena’s steel frame roof to OSEG, as approved by Council
  • this underperformance of the LPP has resulted in OSEG requesting that the city renegotiate the terms of the Partnership to ensure a more sustainable arrangement
  • the staff report states multiple times that if the proposed revisions to the LPP do not proceed, the City’s Partnership with OSEG could fail, which would present a significant financial risk to the City
  • despite this highlighted risk, the staff report does not identify appropriate and robust mitigation strategies or alternative approaches to maintaining and operating Lansdowne should OSEG default on the LPP
  • even if the Lansdowne 2.0 plan and the proposed recommendations are approved, OSEG still maintains the right to default on the LPP at any time
  • considering that the Partnership hinges on financially sustainability and given the risks identified in the report, should the revised Partnership not result in financially sustainability, the City should have appropriate risk mitigation strategies in place including options for alternate paths forward
  • staff have advised that, should the motion be approved, the City would inherit a net operating deficit of $8-12M annually should another partner not be selected

Check it yourself

This entry was transcribed from the City Clerk's official minutes. If anything here looks wrong, the minutes are the authority.

Read the official minutes