(ATR) If the comments made by Calgary city council members at a committee meeting are any indication, the city’s dalliance with a 2026 Winter Games bid should come to an end next week.
There was very little support for the bid to continue during lengthy debate in the Priorities and Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday. Committee members voted 9-1 in favor of making a decision on whether to continue pursuing the project at the next full council meeting on April 16.
Tuesday’s committee meeting was meant to be a forum to discuss plans for public engagement on the bid process, including the cost of a plebiscite to be held in the coming months in Calgary and surrounding communities directly involved with a possible bid.
But committee members instead decided to hold off on approving any more funding for a potential bid and instead recommended the city council holds a yes or no vote to pursue a bid before allocating any more money toward it.
Councillor Druh Farrell, who brought the motion for a yes or no vote, has been against a 2026 bid for some time. But she has been gaining allies in recent weeks.
The last vote by the council to continue the bid was held on March 30 and it was the close, with only eight of the 14 councillors supporting it.
One of the yes votes was from Councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart, who said a few days later that she was reconsidering her stance following a series of miscommunications between the province of Alberta and the city of Calgary on the conditions attached to the provincial funding needed to form a bid corporation.
Colley-Urquhart was clearly disappointed in the answers she was given on Tuesday to a lengthy list of questions she asked the Olympic project team.
Along with other councillors, she voiced her displeasure at what she believes is a bias in favor of a bid in the information being presented to the council.
A second councillor who had previously voted for the bid, Ward Sutherland, went on social media to say he had changed his mind and would vote to discontinue the bid.
He said on Twitter that Tuesday’s meeting "only served to reconfirm that answers are missing, and at times provided convoluted information. It now seems we are chasing a moving target from the International Olympic Committee. Unfortunately, I am not confident in the process moving forward."
Speaking to reporters, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi agreed that there were issues with the bid, but urged city council to stay with it until June, when a full financial report is due. The city council had previously been expected to make a final decision on the bid then.
"I share the frustration of last-minute changes by other orders of government, I share the frustration of reports that are not clear enough coming to council in terms of what’s being said," Nenshi said.
"So, yeah, I think it’s fair to say it’s a bit in the ditch. And the question is, is it worth pulling out of the ditch or not? And I think it is."
Nenshi says holding an Olympics in Calgary would bring in money that would otherwise be unavailable to upgrade some of the city’s 40-year-old winter sport facilities and build new structures such as a field house. Part of the windfall would also create more affordable housing in the city.
Should the council vote no next week, a Calgary 2026 bid would be dead. Should they vote to continue, discussions on public engagement, including the cost of a potential plebiscite, would need to be held.
Written by Gerard Farek
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