No to public funding for baseball in Montreal, thunders the opposition

The construction of a new baseball stadium should not be funded by the public sector. This is what the three opposition parties intoned in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

“I hope for Major League Baseball to return to Montreal,” said Liberal sports critic Enrico Ciccone. But I do not believe that a public investment in the construction of a stadium enjoys social acceptability, at this time, in the current economic context. “

Above all, public funds must be used for schools, the health and education system, believes the parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. “There are so many things to do with public money in Quebec before funding a baseball stadium,” he summed up.

The Parti Québécois declared itself “not very favorable” or “completely unfavorable” to public funding. “It’s a debate that seems to stir up passions in the race for mayor of Montreal, we will let them debate that,” said MP Joël Arseneau. But if the Government of Quebec should open the door to it, we will react with a certain reserve. ”

Quebec would have discussions “at high level», With the investment firm Claridge to build a baseball stadium in Montreal. The Minister of the Economy Pierre Fitzgibbon made the statement in an interview with the Journal of Montreal. The government’s financial involvement would however be conditional on significant economic benefits, he specified.