Olympic bid chair fields questions from city council

Now that the city’s $30-million Olympic bid organization has a leader, it’s time to unveil the name: Calgary 2026.

Just days after it was announced that Scott Hutcheson would chair Calgary ’s bid corporation, the former alpine skier and real estate executive appeared before city council’s Olympic assessment committee.

Councillors questioned Hutcheson on Tuesday about how he planned to handle any perceived conflicts of interest stemming from his involvement with a number of sports-related organizations.

Hutcheson said he has already stepped down from a number of boards, including Own the Podium, Winterstart and WinSport.

“I wouldn’t put myself in a conflict of interest position but perception’s everything,” Hutcheson said.

He also confirmed that Calgary 2026 was officially incorporated Friday, and that the bid corporation would have most of its directors selected by the end of this week. But leading the charge for a potential bid will be Calgary 2026’s still-to-be-appointed CEO.

Hutcheson said potential candidates will need to be prepared for the “80-hour work weeks” required to build a bid book in time for the International Olympic Committee’s January deadline.

Committee members also heard some high-level operational planning ideas for hosting the Games.

The city’s Olympic project team suggested Calgary could be spared the expense of building a temporary anti-doping lab — as Vancouver did in 2010 — by flying samples for testing to Montreal’s internationally recognized lab.

Administration also hinted there could be further budgetary requests coming to council related to staffing costs for the city ’s Olympic secretariat.

Councillors got the chance to see a potential draft budget for the secretariat during a closed portion of Tuesday’s meeting.

The secretariat will be responsible for some aspects of planning and risk management for the Games.

The costs would have to be drawn from city budgets rather than Calgary’s portion of the $30-million bid corporation.

“Every level of government has set up their own secretariats. It’s the city filter on the work that the BidCo is undertaking,” said committee chair Coun. Evan Woolley.