There have been a few construction timeline slips on Scotia Place, but they’ve been able to catch up, members of Calgary’s Event Centre Committee heard at its final meeting Thursday.  

With construction now nine months in, the Event Centre committee, once struck to get the project back on track after it fell through nearly four years ago, held the final meeting in its mandate on April 10, 2025.

In that final meeting, members heard about schedule, budget and the impact of tariffs on the $1.25 billion arena project.

Bob Hunter, Event Centre project leader, told the group they are currently 90 per cent complete with excavation, and 1,110 structural piles have been drilled and installed. Much of the work right now is below grade, and they’re working with the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation on figuring out the 6 Street SE underpass for the surrounding Culture and Entertainment District.

“It is the start of all the below-grade work that has to occur, and a very, very significant amount of below-grade work,” Hunter said.

“But hopefully by the early fall, or even later in the year, we will be back up to grade level, and people will be able to start to see as the steel starts to go up in the exterior structure starts to go up.”

There are currently 170 staff on site, and thus far 308,000 cubic metres of dirt have been removed, Hunter said. More than 41,000 cubic metres of concrete will be poured and there will be 9,000 metric tons of rebar. There will be 5,000 kilometres of wire installed as a part of the project.

Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp, chair of the Event Centre Committee, said that it’s been a journey over the past four years.

“We’re all looking forward, I know, as just members look at the Calgarians, to come through those doors and either enjoy an event, a hockey game or watching some of our kids play at the community rink.”

On-again, off-again US tariffs are a consistent issue

Hunter said they’ve already gone to great lengths to mitigate the potential impact of tariffs, but they likely won’t be unavoidable. He said they talk about the impact of US tariffs almost every day among their construction group.

“We really don’t know what is going to happen. We are optimistic. We’re looking at all options as it relates to procurement,” he said.

They’ve already awarded an $80 million steel contract, with the raw materials coming from Europe and fabrication being done in Hamilton, Ontario. Concrete and excavation contracts are being handled by local firms, with others like electrical and mechanical out for bid.

“We will have to source some significant product lines from the US. If you look at seats, they’re generally only US suppliers, video boards, sound systems, again, typically only US suppliers,” Hunter said.

“So, let’s hope that things settle as they are today, and hopefully they are prolonged over our term of procurement.”

Hunter said that in some cases, they may have to buy and store the items locally before they are used. That would depend on when and with whom they make a purchase.

Coun. Sharp said that she was happy with the project status at this time.

“As of today, we’re on time, on budget, and tariffs haven’t impacted this project,” she said.

“That being said, we don’t know what will happen next week. We don’t know what will happen in months from now, but administration is on top of it all.”

Sharp said that the committee’s closure is the culmination of a plan to get the Event Centre back on track and a project in the ground. It’s nearly three years to the day that this group came together to shepherd the project forward.

“Here we are, three years later, where we can say that the committee did what it needed to do,” she said.

“I don’t think we could have had a better outcome of where we are today.”

The Event Centre project team will continue to provide regular reports through the Infrastructure and Planning Committee of Calgary city council.