Conservative minister says ‘door is not closed’
The federal government made it clear on Thursday it hasn’t ruled out funding the construction of an NHL arena in Quebec City. “My Quebec caucus colleagues and I support the amphitheatre project,” Josée Verner, the Conservatives’ minister for Quebec City, told reporters, “and the door is not closed with the federal government, far from it.” All three federal opposition parties support the project, which appeared to get boost last weekend when Pierre-Karl Péladeau, the presumptive owner of a the provincial capital’s hypothetical NHL franchise, said he’d be prepared to put “tens of millions of dollars” into the arena project. However the issue of government funding has proved divisive inside the federal Conservative caucus.