WHEREAS the report titled ‘Lansdowne Partnership Plan - Authorization to Proceed to the Next Steps in the Redevelopment Report’ represents the fourth report, since 2014, that City Council will consider with respect to the Lansdowne Park Partnership Plan, and
WHEREAS in each successive report, the city has approved amendments to the Partnership Plan with the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), with the stated goal to ensure the Partnership's long-term sustainability; and
WHEREAS just three years ago in December 2020, Council supported several amendments to the Lansdowne Partnership Plan to assist OSEG, including extending the partnership and associated closed financial system and Waterfall by ten years from 2044 to 2054, made concessions on participation rent and retail revenue benefitting OSEG, and approved one-time access to the city's capital reserve - increasing the liquidity for OSEG and improving their cash flows; and
WHEREAS the 2020 report indicated that these changes to the Partnership Plan would result in restored balance and alignment of risk and potential reward/potential loss, ensuring long-term financial sustainability of the Partnership; and
WHEREAS despite these significant changes, financial sustainability was not achieved, and just three years later OSEG is asking the city to once again amend the Partnership Plan, (Lansdowne 2.0) exposing the city again to increased financial risk and $656 million in public debt repayments; and
WHEREAS the financial strategy for Lansdowne 2.0 is built upon several unpredictable financial assumptions including preliminary construction cost estimates, overly optimistic profit projections, precarious revenue sources- such as the Municipal Accommodations Tax, and unconfirmed funding from other orders of government; and
WHEREAS the funding strategy relies on the Lansdowne Partnership Plan waterfall producing significant profit, despite none to date, in order to meet its financial obligations to service the project debt of $16.4M annually; and
WHEREAS the assumptions in the financial strategy require further validation including a confirmed commitment from upper levels of government, a commitment to keep the teams longer than 2032 which OSEG has not provided, a market scan for potential hotel partnerships, and refined project costs, to ensure that Council can make an informed decision; and
WHEREAS given the significance of this project and increased risk to the city, the City's Auditor General has confirmed that the office will be conducting an Audit on the Draft Lansdowne 2.0 Plan and will report back through Audit Committee in 2024 on the proposed plans; and
WHEREAS the recommendations in the audit report will help ensure that Council is fulfilling its oversight role and exercising prudent fiscal management of taxpayer dollars;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council defers the report titled ‘‘Lansdowne Partnership Plan - Authorization to Proceed to the Next Steps in the Redevelopment Report’ to 2024 after the tabling of the Auditor General’s Sprint Audit of Lansdowne 2.0 and allow for more financial due diligence and risk analysis on the above topics, including the tabling of the Auditor General’s Agile Audit of Lansdowne 2.0.