Government employees to do exams
Just six weeks before Calgarians vote on the Olympics, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he’s getting “nervous about timing ” as the city awaits commitments from other orders of government on a costsharing agreement to pay for the Games.
“While the province has agreed that they would have their information 30 days in advance, we haven’t had a similar commitment from the federal government,” Nenshi said.
“If it slips a few days, I’m not fussed. But if it starts to slip very close to the plebiscite, I’m going to start to get very worried.”
The mayor said Calgarians are owed clarity about the cost-sharing split between the different orders of government in time for them to make a decision before the vote on Nov. 13.
“I’m losing my hair and mind over this question,” Nenshi told council’s Olympic assessment committee Tuesday.
Nenshi made the comments as the city announced the launch of its “neutral” and “unbiased” public engagement campaign on the Olympic bid, unveiling a web portal and plans to hold 17 events and open houses throughout October.
The campaign will include engagement with Indigenous communities, starting with a meeting with Métis Nation members on Friday. Feedback from the public campaign, expected to run until Oct. 28, will be gathered and presented to city council ahead of the plebiscite.
“We are meeting with diverse groups of Calgarians, minorities and a whole range of stakeholders to ensure we get that balanced perspective from citizens,” Coun. Evan Woolley said following Tuesday’s meeting.
But as the Olympic plebiscite looms, the field is growing crowded with voices supporting, opposing or ambivalent about the Games, Nenshi acknowledged Tuesday.
In addition to the city’s public engagement program, a voter information campaign is underway from Elections Calgary, as well as advocacy for the bid from Calgary 2026 and campaigning from both the Yes and No sides.
Also stepping into that fray are individual members of council, Nenshi said.
“If the deal comes through, and I think it’s a great deal, I will not be shy about telling people it’s a great deal in the run-up to the plebiscite and I hope that other members of council who have that point of view will do the same,” he said.
“I want to pre-empt people going, ‘hey, you can’t say that’ or ‘hey, you’re not supposed to say that,’ because I think we’ve been very, very clear about the different roles here.”
Tuesday’s meeting of council’s Olympic committee saw some of the bid’s staunchest critics calling on the city to release information about potential Olympics-related costs that have so far been kept confidential.
Coun. Jeromy Farkas criticized the city ’s decision to release a summarized version of a financial due diligence report on the Olympics that only included part of the information originally presented to council.
“The financial summary that was released today was very heavy on the summary and very light on the financials,” Farkas said. “It doesn’t really say a lot.”
City solicitor Glenda Cole defended the partial release but said the city will review existing confidential documents to determine what more can be shared.
“This is a competitive process and we are involved in very sensitive negotiations at a very critical moment on this project with other orders of government,” Cole said. “I hope you will trust me that when we went through that attachment, we released everything publicly that we could.”
If it slips a few days, I’m not fussed. But if it starts to slip very close to the plebiscite, I’m going to start to get ... worried.