The multi-million dollar arena deal between the City of Calgary and the owners of the Flames is being paused over “a difference in the current budget estimate and the program requirements for the facility.”

That’s according to the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation, the city-owned entity responsible for overseeing the $550 million project. 

“Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), along with our partners at the City of Calgary, provided an update to council at the April 13th closed meeting on the progress of the Event Centre,” reads an emailed statement from CMLC, attributed to its president and CEO Kate Thompson. 

“We started this project by developing principles and a program that would create a building that Calgarians would be proud to have in their city, and over the past several months, the team has developed a design to reach that goal.”

It says the parties have agreed to pause the project to allow time to “resolve these challenges” related to the budget.

Coun. Jeromy Farkas, who is running for mayor, voted against the deal when it was before council. 

“I didn’t support the arena projects because of the unrealistic budgets and the very real chance of taxpayers being on the hook for cost overruns,” he said Wednesday afternoon. 

“And it looks like the budget’s already been blown through.”

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