Opposition steams as province tables NHL partnership contract with costs redacted

Minister of Tourism Zack Bell faced lots of questions Wednesday as he tabled the province's contract with the National Hockey League, which had all of the costs redacted.

The first year of the deal to make P.E.I. the league's official tourism destination cost $2.5 million, with the ability to extend that to up to three years, the province said when it unveiled the pact back in February.

But when tourism officials appeared at a legislative committee meeting last month, they told MLAs the province was never supposed to have released the dollar figure, since that was proprietary corporate information and covered by a non-disclosure agreement with the NHL.

On Wednesday, MLAs wanted transparency about the price the province is paying, what it's paying for, and what potential perks may have come with the contract.

"When we look at a deal like this, this is not a deal between two private businesses. This is a deal between a government and the NHL, with taxpayers' money, and so it being shrouded in secrecy is a big deal," interim Green Party Leader Karla Bernard said.

In particular, Bernard wanted to know more about the cost of the NHL All-Star weekend in February in Toronto.

"We had to pay for everything. So we know for sure there were several ministers and staff ... they built their own displays for that. They served oysters, they served lobster, and all of that would have been on the taxpayers' dime," she said.

Liberal MLA Robert Henderson also wanted more answers about the contract Bell was tabling, making a motion to compel the government to release the unredacted version. He said a contract dealing with government money should be disclosed to the public, and any contract should have allowed for that.

"A deal is who the signatories are on the deal, on the contract, that's whose deal it is," Henderson said. "Everybody's responsible for it, can't be one or the other: 'Oh, the NHL says we can't disclose that.'"

He called that wrong, saying, "When you're dealing with government funding, that's the issue." 

Evaluating an extended deal

Bell said the Department of Fisheries, Tourism, Sport and Culture is still in the process of evaluating how the first year of the deal went. He said they are going through each aspect of the contract to make sure the province and taxpayers are "getting their most bang for their buck."

As for why the version of the contract that was tabled blacked out all the costs, he said he had asked for a legal opinion because he wanted to make sure he was not divulging information he shouldn't.

"It is taxpayers' money... at least I wanted the contract to be out there. Yeah, the dollar figures are not there... but I just wanted the information out there to be as transparent as possible," Bell said, mentioning the fact that the cost had been revealed back when the deal was first signed, so it's not a secret.

He said the NHL contract is a good one for tourism on the Island.

"One of the toughest parts with advertising is, you know... that you try some different things and you hope that one sticks. And you know, if there's any way that we can show P.E.I. or tell people about P.E.I., then that is a good thing."

Bell said there's been no decision yet about extending the contract into a second year, and couldn't say when the deadline for signing an extension would be.