Notley noncommital on Calgary Olympic bid

Province must weigh ‘pros and cons’ before making a decision, premier says

CALGARY Premier Rachel Notley says the Alberta government needs to look at the “pros and cons” before deciding whether it will support a potential Calgary bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Earlier this week, Calgary city council approved allocating a further $1 million toward exploring an Olympic bid, with an additional $1 million contingent on the provincial and federal governments quickly coming on board.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said Monday the decision to go after the winter games will require the approval of three levels of government, with the city needing a decision from Edmonton and Ottawa by the end of the year.

Notley, who spoke at the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association annual convention in Calgary Thursday, told reporters she hadn’t yet had a chance to “go through the pros and cons on the matter.”

“What we’re planning on doing is reviewing all the information on it,” she said. “There’s a lot of documentation and a lot of conflicting opinion and I think that we owe it to taxpayers to think very hard about the economic benefits, to make sure they are significant and real.”

Council moved ahead on the Olympic bid this week only after a controversy arose over internal reports questioning the economic spinoff from hosting the games, as Calgary had done in 1988.

Studies commissioned by the Calgary Bid Exploration Committee from Deloitte and the Conference Board of Canada suggested significant economic benefits.

But two reports penned for the city — by University of Calgary professor Trevor Tombe and West Virginia University professor Brad Humphreys — poked holes in those studies. Councillors questioned why the internal reports had not been made public and why they had only heard of their existence now.