NENSHI, COUNCIL HAVE NO VISION FOR OLYMPICS
Amid all the blathering, no mention of what Games might mean for our city, our future
Where there is no vision, the (Olympics) perish. With my apologies for tweaking that Old Testament Bible verse from Proverbs, that pretty much sums up what’s happening at Calgary City Hall with its tortuous process on whether to bid on the 2026 Winter Olympics or not.
While there were indeed plenty of words spoken Monday about the Olympics at City Hall — blathering on about geishas, process, funding, process, death threats, process, prostitutes, process, plebiscites, process, bid committees, process — there were no words I heard about a vision for the Games — what it would do for Calgary, its citizens and our young people.
Ward 13 Coun. Diane ColleyUrquhart came the closest with a statement she actually typed up and read. “Can council overcome this faltering process over the past eight weeks?” she asked.
“Can we even produce a bid with our partners that will entice the world to see Calgary as we see the future of our what city could be?” she added.
A scrum outside council chambers may provide an answer to that question, but take heed: it’s ugly.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi was asked by yours truly what is the vision for this Olympics, what are we actually bidding on?
“Well, the Olympic Winter Games have about 16 sports in them, they happen every four years in the winter,” Nenshi sniped, with a snicker. Can you hear the snark in that comment?
I continued undeterred. Does the bid still include sharing the games with Edmonton and Whistler, as he has previously mused?
“All of that is to be decided,” he answered.
Well, as a citizen, I am in favour of continuing down the road of an Olympic bid, but not if it means holding either Olympic hockey or Olympic skating in Edmonton as part of His Worship’s grand vision. Calgary should either host these Games and build a new arena (which will have the added benefit of ensuring the Calgary Flames stay in Calgary) or stop this idiocy now.
In short, there’s no one leading the parade. No, scrap that. Nenshi is sort of leading the parade but he’s just stumbling about listening to his own voice on a recording while wearing noisecancelling headphones. As a result, the band is out of tune and is marching out of step right into a squalid dead-end alley.
Listen to this following pearl of no wisdom from Nenshi:
“I think it’s extremely important that the city remain neutral,” he said. “Only because if the city is running the election (plebiscite), you have to stay neutral. Whether that means individual politicians could take sides or not, that’s yet to be determined.”
What a bunch of hooey. So, during the last municipal election, should the mayor have remained neutral about his own candidacy? Nenshi’s just making this up as he goes along. He voted Yes to continue the process Monday but one has to wonder why. He has no grand vision for this city, no dream of the beautiful things we can build and the legacy that will be born of a new Olympic bid.
It’s brutally sad. We can’t even get a deal to use the old science centre for a contemporary art gallery under this mayor and council.
On Monday council voted 9-6 in favour of supporting “the investigation of a bid by Calgary for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Council also passed an amendment to establish a subcommittee, made up of the mayor and four councillors, which would oversee the Olympic process. The committee would be chaired by a councillor. Sounds like a recipe for a continued gong show, if you ask me. This process should go to a stand-alone bid committee made up of people from every level of government and business, arts and Indigenous people.
Nenshi and councillors Shane Keating, George Chahal, Jeff Davison, Evan Woolley, Gian-Carlo Carra, Ray Jones, Diane ColleyUrquhart and Ward Sutherland voted in favour of the motion.
Councillors Joe Magliocca, Jyoti Gondek, Sean Chu, Druh Farrell, Jeromy Farkas and Peter Demong voted against.
After council voted, WinS port’s president and CEO, Barry Heck, left the council chambers relieved but frustrated. Why?
“We’re not hearing any vision from in there,” he said.
Commentary about the money that would be spent on Olympic infrastructure being better spent on “more important things” is just nonsense, points out Heck, whose organization, formerly known as Canada Olympic Park, contributes $120 million annually to Calgary’s GDP and employs some 1,200 people.
“The federal government will be a big contributor toward building infrastructure, so think of this as a one-time opportunity for Calgary to get a massive infusion of infrastructure money,” said Heck.
In other words, it’s an opportunity for Calgary to get some of our money back from the feds instead of it all going to Quebec and Bombardier. Sounds righteous, doesn’t it?
“So people who say ‘Let’s spend the money on other things’ should understand there will be no other money. It won’t happen. The federal government has hosting strategies of major events — one every 10 years — or something, but we’re foolish to think we can take this $2 billion and spend it on something else, because it won’t be there,” said Heck, who points out WinSport’s facilities are 30 years old and need upgrading.
“What will remain,” he adds, “are the city’s unfunded infrastructure needs and the city will have to decide, how are we going to fund this? How are we going to recapitalize this? How are we going to fix the Olympic Oval? How are we going to build the low-cost housing that will eventually be used? If we don’t explore this with the impetus of federal funding in a Games, then we’re on our own.”
Our mayor and council need a vision of what can be — an LRT line to the airport, a new hockey arena, halfpipe and other snowboarding infrastructure, a field house ... When it comes to the Olympic question about proceeding with a bid, the time for salvation from this endless lack of vision is now.