2026 OLYMPIC BID: YES OR NO?
City crafting plebiscite question
A city council committee has signed off on a simple question for an Olympic plebiscite, similar to one used previously in Vancouver, but one that could still be tweaked to include details on costs of hosting before Calgarians go to the polls this fall.
The city’s returning officer has proposed putting a simple question to Calgarians: “Do you support or do you oppose the City of Calgary’s participation in hosting the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games?”
To guard against any potential for confusion, the ballot options would be explicit: “Yes, I support the City of Calgary’s participation,” or “No, I oppose the City of Calgary’s participation.”
Committee members voted unanimously in favour of using the returning officer’s question as a template, but further information could still be added to clarify the financial costs of hosting another Olympics.
“It has to be a very simple question — are you in favour of Calgary bidding on the Olympics or not? — but it has to be also informed by how much is that gonna cost,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi said following Tuesday’s meeting.
“We’ve got to get this right. We have to always balance off real clarity with making sure people know exactly what they’re voting on.”
The question’s final wording won’t be carved in stone until the province has a chance to weigh in, Nenshi said.
The plebiscite was a condition of the provincial government’s support for the creation of an Olympic bid corporation in April. Tuesday, the mayor told committee members he’s hopeful Alberta’s NDP government will cover the estimated $1.96 million cost of the plebiscite.
The exact timing of the plebiscite will also depend on how quickly the city can work out a proposed deal to fund the Games.
Council won’t have solid details on a multi-party agreement — the funding arrangement between the city, the provincial and federal governments, and the Canadian Olympic Committee — until September or possibly October.
That means a plebiscite couldn’t be held until November at the earliest, committee members heard Tuesday.
Calgary’s returning officer confirmed she’s looking at various dates in November, including Saturdays or Mondays, for holding the vote.
“I don’t think you do a plebiscite or a public hearing until those numbers are out there,” Nenshi said. “I think November is both the earliest and the latest we could do it.”
Tuesday’s meeting also saw councillors vote against holding a non-statutory public hearing of council on the Olympics, at least for the time being.
Nenshi called the notion of a public hearing “window dressing ” since council has already agreed to a plebiscite.
But Coun. Druh Farrell disagreed, arguing council has a “responsibility to hear from the public.”
“My concern is that the timeline’s so compressed that there’s more of an opportunity to make a mistake,” Farrell said. “This is a really risky venture.
“Vancouver had years to consult with the public and we have a matter of months.”
The city is expected to officially begin public consultations on the Olympics at the end of June.
Vancouver conducted its public hearings over a two-year period in the lead-up to the successful bid by that city in 2003, according to one of the city’s Olympic consultants.
Calgary has just over four months to conduct consultations on a potential bid before a plebiscite is held in November.