P.E.I. spending millions in hope of hosting NHL Awards, documents show
Kerry Campbell | CBC News | Posted: November 22, 2024 5:06 PM | Last Updated: November 22
Opposition says the only beneficiaries of deal are cabinet ministers travelling to games
At one point, the Prince Edward Island government was so certain the Island would be hosting the 2024 NHL Awards banquet that it booked off all 50,000 square feet of convention space at the province's biggest convention centre for a week in June, along with a "significant guest room block" at a hotel in downtown Charlottetown.
But the televised awards show celebrating the National Hockey League season's best players and coaches instead took place at the BleauLive Theater, a glitzy 3,800-seat venue in Las Vegas that has also hosted Justin Timberlake and Paul Anka.
Government officials in Canada's smallest province are still chasing the possibility of hosting a future edition of the NHL Awards, though.
But even though the province has signed a sponsorship agreement with the league worth millions, it's not clear if that will ever lead to the awards coming here.
In the meantime, opposition MLAs have been crying foul about the cost of the deal, along with travel and potential perks for government ministers travelling to NHL events.
The NHL announced in February that P.E.I. would become the league's first-ever "official travel destination," placing the province in the company of big-name sponsors like Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch.
P.E.I. also gets to have its logo flashed along the boards at select NHL broadcasts, along with six 30-second marketing "vignettes" promoting the province as a travel destination, featuring an NHL influencer.
But in order for Islanders to find out the cost of all this, MLAs from the opposition Liberal and Green parties had to push through a subpoena from a legislative committee ordering the province's tourism minister to release an unredacted copy of the contract.
That contract shows the province will pay between $7.5 million and $8.4 million in direct costs to the NHL over the course of the three years.
The province's total tourism marketing budget before the deal was signed was $5.5 million per year.
Province pitched outdoor awards show
"In anticipation of hosting the NHL Awards on P.E.I., we have held all convention centre meeting space and ballroom space at the Delta Prince Edward by Marriott for June 19-25, 2024," Kent MacDonald wrote in an email to NHL executives dated Sept. 16, 2022, when the contract was still being negotiated.
MacDonald is the CEO of Tourism P.E.I., a Crown corporation tasked with promoting travel to the province.
The Official Opposition Liberals obtained hundreds of pages of MacDonald's emails through freedom of information legislation.
According to those emails, MacDonald and other officials didn't want to host the awards at the Delta. They wanted an outdoor ceremony that might highlight some of the Island's natural beauty.
Not surprisingly, the NHL had concerns about the possibility of inclement weather.
At the top of the list of possible indoor venues for the awards put together by the province was the Eastlink Centre in Charlottetown, home of the QMJHL's Charlottetown Islanders.
Officials also included the Confederation Centre of the Arts on their list, with its 1,100-seat theatre.
Awards go from sure thing to maybe
At one point, NHL officials were communicating as if holding the NHL Awards on P.E.I. were a done deal.
In December 2022, Jason Jazayeri, vice-president of business development with the NHL, told provincial officials that the cost of the plan the league had come up with was "within the range but on the higher end of what we initially shared," but that was inclusive of everything the two sides had spoken about during negotiations, including "hosting our NHL Awards event during the term of our partnership at P.E.I."
But as the contract came to fruition, the awards show became a possibility rather than a certainty.
The contract included contingencies and separate dollar amounts, payable by the province in quarterly instalments, in the event Charlottetown was chosen as host city for 2025 or 2026. (Hosting the 2025 event is now off the table, the tourism minister confirmed Thursday.)
Rather than the awards, the province was promised that it would host an NHL business meeting in year one of the deal. That took place in early September.
"Nearly 140 guests and nearly 50 NHL partners attended the three-day summit, which included experiencing all Prince Edward Island has to offer for both leisure and work experiences," according to a media release issued by the NHL after the event.
The province didn't issue a news release about the summit.
Did premier, ministers get NHL perks?
"This is a bad deal for Islanders," Opposition leader Hal Perry said in the legislature Wednesday. "It would appear the only ones who benefited from this agreement were government and government officials, rubbing shoulders with NHL big shots, throwing and attending fancy parties on the taxpayers' dime."
Opposition MLAs say they want to know whether government MLAs or bureaucrats received perks or benefits from the deal, including travel, hospitality or NHL tickets.
While the province hasn't provided that information, using public expense disclosures, CBC News calculated that at least $61,570.19 in travel expenses were incurred by cabinet ministers, staff and senior officials on trips where the NHL was confirmed to be on the agenda.The true cost is undoubtedly higher, as some staff who travelled are not required to submit public expense reports, while CBC News was not able to locate some reports which should be online.
Everything in that statement is categorically false, and the sad part is, I don't even think the NHL officials were at the party that we had. — Premier Dennis King to interim Liberal leader Hal Perry
CBC News asked the premier's office for itineraries for eight trips the premier took but did not receive them.
Records show Premier Dennis King, MacDonald, former tourism minister Cory Deagle and former economic growth minister Gilles Arsenault, along with at least three other staff members, were all part of a five-day trip to New York in October 2023 billed on some expense forms as a "premier-led multi-sector mission."
On Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023, P.E.I. hosted a reception at the Canadian consulate in New York. The evening included lobster rolls made with P.E.I. lobster, potato martinis and music from Island musician Alli Walker, now based in Nashville.
"It was quite the lavish party that this government threw in New York — lobster rolls, some hired entertainment, plenty of booze," Perry said in the legislature. "It seems like quite the little party to rub shoulders with their NHL buddies."
"Everything in that statement is categorically false, and the sad part is, I don't even think the NHL officials were at the party that we had," King snapped back.
But the emails show that not only did some NHL officials attend, but they had a good time.
"We had a blast at your event on Thursday," said Jazayeri.
"Thoroughly enjoyed your hospitality Thursday night," said Matt Farrell, the league's business development manager.
The league had also invited members of the Island contingent to watch the New York Rangers' 2023-2024 home opener from an NHL suite during the October visit.
When asked in the legislature if he had attended that game, King responded: "I've never set foot in Madison Square Garden in my life, but it's on my bucket list."
CBC News asked multiple times to interview King for this story but he was not made available. Neither did MacDonald respond to a request for an interview.
The Opposition has asked King multiple times who paid for his tickets — for example, when he attended the Winter Classic NHL game in Boston in January 2023 and the 2023 NHL Awards in Nashville that summer.
King has said in the legislature that he didn't pay himself, but hasn't said who did.
The Liberals say any MLAs who accepted free tickets or other perks may have run afoul of the province's Conflict of Interest Act. Under the Act, MLAs have to declare any gifts or personal benefits worth more than $200.
Neither King nor any of his cabinet ministers has declared any gifts on their current public disclosure statements, from the NHL or anyone else.
The act also says MLAs aren't allowed to accept any "fee, gift or personal benefit that is connected directly or indirectly with the performance of the member's duties of office."
P.E.I.'s Conflict of Interest Commissioner Judy Burke told CBC News via email she couldn't speak to hypothetical situations, but said that while the act "provides very clear definitions and [a] process to assess and report gifts, it is only a framework until the details of each circumstance are weighed against it."
Tourism Minister Zack Bell has defended the NHL contract, crediting it for boosting tourism numbers on Prince Edward Island.
"It's kind of that record-setting year. September numbers for tourism are up 20 per cent," Bell told the legislature on Nov. 14.
However, the province's own tourism indicators show that the number of fixed-roof overnight stays for the first nine months of 2024, a key indicator of tourism performance, was down 1.1 per cent versus January-to-September numbers for the year before.
CBC News asked the province to clarify which statistic the minister was referring to, with regard to the 20 per cent increase, but has not received a response.
CBC News reached out to the NHL for comment on this story but did not receive a response.