GAMES BID ON THE LINE
Vote could end process
Some Calgary city councillors are calling for a vote to put a stop to any further work on a potential bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Ahead of a critical meeting Tuesday on the question of an Olympic plebiscite, councillors Druh Farrell and Jyoti Gondek say they’re hoping to test council’s willingness to continue further down the Olympic path, arguing it’s past time for council to answer the question of whether it’s wise to proceed any further with a bid.
“We need to get a temperature check from council, we need another vote,” Farrell said Monday. “It’s my impression that we don’t have a majority support (for the Olympics) any longer on council, let’s determine that now before we’ve spent any more money.
“We have been making basic mistakes on what could be the largest project in our history. This is bigger than the Green Line and we’re making basic mistakes.”
On Tuesday, a council committee is expected to discuss proposed plans for public engagement and a plebiscite that would put the question of pursuing a bid for the Games to Calgarians.
A plebiscite could be held between October 2018 and February 2019, according to administration, with a price tag of almost $2 million. Administrators also laid out plans for a six-month public engagement strategy that would begin immediately under the guidance of a third-party firm with funds from Calgary’s Olympic bid corporation, according to a report going before council members Tuesday.
Gondek isn’t impressed with the engagement strategy and questions the neutrality of the city’s approach.
“When I read the report, it sounds a lot like the public engagement process being proposed is seeking support and that is not what we need to be doing,” Gondek said. “We need to be seeking input and feedback, not seeking support. We need to see whether people are actually interested in this. This is not 1988, let’s get over that. Let’s look at what’s happening now.”
With news last month that the NDP government would make financial support for a bid contingent upon Calgary holding a plebiscite, several councillors have reconsidered their positions — particularly on the subject of a plebiscite.
Coun. Sean Chu, an Olympics skeptic and the first on council to call for a plebiscite last year, said he’s been struggling with what to do now that voting against a plebiscite has suddenly become much more appealing, if it means ending Calgary’s pursuit of a second Winter Games.
“I might have to vote ‘no’ to the plebiscite,” he said. “On the other hand, that was my motion. So, I’m debating. Morally, it would be wrong for me not to support, but it’s a tough decision.”
But Chu is pleased with what he perceives as a shift in council’s appetite to continue with a bid.
On March 20, council voted 8-6 in favour of creating a bid corporation. Councillors Joe Magliocca, Jeromy Farkas, Peter Demong, Gondek, Chu and Farrell all voted against.
Now, some councillors are hopeful that there is even more support for killing the process and some have pointed to critical comments made last week by Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart as a signal that the balance on council is shifting away from the Olympics.
Colley-Urquhart raised questions last Thursday about the transparency of the bid process so far, asking why it seemed there was a consensus among the other levels of government about the necessity of a plebiscite without city council having made an official decision.