Community
John Short on Edmonton’s baseball debate
Once again, Edmonton’s city council, the Edmonton Prospects and a 20-member group identified only as an organization headed by Randy Gregg are locked in a debate over the future of Re/Max Field. Will it be a baseball stadium for much longer or will it become a clearing house for any number of civic events – enough of them, ultimately, to force the stadium and baseball out of the Saskatchewan River Valley?
It is well known that Prospects leader Pat Cassidy was not popular with many on council. He said many times that the city did not live up to its agreements. There were counter-charges that Cassidy could be irregular in his payment schedule.
It is equally well known that Gregg’s status as a former member of the Stanley Cup-winning Edmonton Oilers provides some level of automatic approval from politicians and common citizens, especially those who understand the social and economic values of a successful sports organization.
Gregg elected to conduct all or most of his negotiations outside of the public view, as is his right. Council often evaded questions from media members and the public, using the aged logic that business arrangements are designed for privacy, although in this case public funds and the ultimate use of a well-known public facility were (and are) at issue.
Superficially at least, the differences between the competing platforms are obvious. Cassidy applied last year for a five-year agreement which he said would allow more time to develop the Prospects and the Western Canadian Baseball League as a big step up from the status once described by a prominent local reporter as “insignificant.”
Much of the newcomers’ bid, apparently, was tied to opening Re/Max Field numerous times in addition to baseball. His point, a valid one, is that using such a facility for only 40 games or so each season is wasteful. Cassidy responded that his group does quite a bit to occupy Re/Max and has continued to fill as many dates as possible.
There is reason to believe Gregg’s group might have been granted control of Re/Max Field last year. But they didn’t have a baseball team, and they still don’t have one that exists in a recognized interprovincial league. WCBL president Kevin Kvame has stayed up to date on the negotiations. He said this week that there has been no formal conversation with the Gregg group about possibly entering the WCBL.
During the last few years, virtually every serious public debate about Edmonton baseball has been tied to the forlorn hope that the Pacific Coast League, a Triple-A organization where the Edmonton Trappers were once a welcome member, would welcome this community back under the Organized Baseball umbrella.
Lawyer Sol Rolinger engaged about two years ago in meetings with PCL president Branch Rickey Junior and some league officials. He told a meeting that a franchise (probably Fresno, California) would be available for a few million dollars and the PCL would only require a 35,000- to 45,000-seat baseball facility to reopen the doors to Good Old Ourtown.
Those days, obviously, are in the past.
What made the proposal most attractive for a lot of Edmontonians was the possibility that the new park would be placed on the site of the now-avoided Northlands Coliseum, which became valueless as soon as Darryl Katz completed his deal to house the Oilers in the palatial Rogers Centre downtown.
Speculation grew that such a move would leave several acres available for development in the river valley almost immediately.
It is well known that land developers, year after year, are among the major contributors to election campaigns.
From the Fraser Institute
By Jake Fuss and Grady Munro
There would have been 1.5 million more Canadians who donated to charity in 2023—and $755.5 million more in donations—had Canadians given to the same extent they did 10 years prior
According to recent polling, approximately one in five Canadians have skipped paying a bill over the past year so they can buy groceries. As families are increasingly hard-pressed to make ends meet, this undoubtedly means more and more people must seek out food banks, shelters and other charitable organizations to meet their basic necessities.
And each year, Canadians across the country donate their time and money to charities to help those in need—particularly around the holiday season. Yet at a time when the relatively high cost of living means these organizations need more resources, new data published by the Fraser Institute shows that the level of charitable giving in Canada is actually falling.
Specifically, over the last 10 years (2013 to 2023, the latest year of available data) the share of tax-filers who reported donating to charity fell from 21.9 per cent to 16.8 per cent. And while fewer Canadians are donating to charity, they’re also donating a smaller share of their income—during the same 10-year period, the share of aggregate income donated to charity fell from 0.55 per cent to 0.52 per cent.
To put this decline into perspective, consider this: there would have been 1.5 million more Canadians who donated to charity in 2023—and $755.5 million more in donations—had Canadians given to the same extent they did 10 years prior. Simply put, this long-standing decline in charitable giving in Canada ultimately limits the resources available for charities to help those in need.
On the bright side, despite the worrying long-term trends, the share of aggregate income donated to charity recently increased from 0.50 per cent in 2022 to 0.52 per cent in 2023. While this may seem like a marginal improvement, 0.02 per cent of aggregate income for all Canadians in 2023 was $255.7 million.
The provinces also reflect the national trends. From 2013 to 2023, every province saw a decline in the share of tax-filers donating to charity. These declines ranged from 15.4 per cent in Quebec to 31.4 per cent in Prince Edward Island.
Similarly, almost every province recorded a drop in the share of aggregate income donated to charity, with the largest being the 24.7 per cent decline seen in P.E.I. The only province to buck this trend was Alberta, which saw a 3.9 per cent increase in the share of aggregate income donated over the decade.
Just as Canada as a whole saw a recent improvement in the share of aggregate income donated, so too did many of the provinces. Indeed, seven provinces (except Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador) saw an increase in the share of aggregate income donated to charity from 2022 to 2023, with the largest increases occurring in Saskatchewan (7.9 per cent) and Alberta (6.7 per cent).
Canadians also volunteer their time to help those in need, yet the latest data show that volunteerism is also on the wane. According to Statistics Canada, the share of Canadians who volunteered (both formally and informally) fell by 8 per cent from 2018 to 2023. And the total numbers of hours volunteered (again, both formal and informal) fell by 18 per cent over that same period.
With many Canadians struggling to make ends meet, food banks, shelters and other charitable organizations play a critical role in providing basic necessities to those in need. Yet charitable giving—which provides resources for these charities—has long been on the decline. Hopefully, we’ll see this trend turn around swiftly.
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