Public will soon be asked input on Calgary’s 2026 Olympic bid
Update on committee’s work plan, budget timeline set for Jan. 23
Calgarians will be able to have their say on a potential 2026 Olympic bid in the coming weeks after city council is provided with its first update on the work 37 people have completed with the bid exploration committee.
It’s been more than six months since council voted 13-2 in favour of spending $5 million to study the feasibility of a Winter Games bid, and nearly four months since Calgary’s former police chief Rick Hanson was named the volunteer head of the Calgary Bid Exploration Committee (CBEC), made up of 17 voting and three non-voting board members.
Since then, 11 full-time CBEC staff members have been hired to work from a donated Eau Claire office, where they take direction from the volunteer board and serve as the “hands of the organization.”
“It’s obviously not a small endeavour at all,” said CBEC spokesman Sean Beardow, noting between the volunteer board, contract employees and unpaid resources, he’s counted 37 people working on exploring a bid.
“(There are) a lot of moving parts, but we’re making excellent progress.”
The timeline to present to council a master facility plan — formerly known as a master hosting plan — has shifted to the spring from an end of 2016 deadline, but Beardow said that timeline was proposed before CBEC was formed. Other deadlines, however, are being met.
Beardow said this week that he’s confident a webpage will go live within a month and Calgarians will soon get a better idea of exactly what CBEC is doing and how they can add their own comments.
“There will be an opportunity for public feedback; that’s something we’re working on now, and we hope to be kind of rolling some of that out over the coming weeks,” Beardow said.
The first update on the group’s work is set for council’s Jan. 23 meeting and Beardow said elected officials will then learn about the work plan, budget breakdown, and see a detailed timeline.
In preparation for that meeting, Kyle Ripley, the city’s director of recreation and direct link to CBEC, has been meeting with small groups of councillors behind closed doors and providing updates on the committee’s progress.
Ripley said such meetings are “standard operating procedure when we’re bringing any complicated file forward to council.”
“We would generally give (councillors) an opportunity to sit down with us, ask us questions, and that’s what we’re doing here. Basically, it was just a precursor of what we intend to bring forward on January 23,” Ripley said.
Ward 4 Coun. Sean Chu, one of only two elected officials to vote in June against studying a bid, attended a meeting with Ripley on Thursday and said he’s still against an Olympic bid.
Ripley said the city has been receiving monthly updates from CBEC and city staff are on track to deliver a final report and recommendations to council this summer based on the committee’s work.
“The bulk of the work is being done by CBEC, preparing a report for council’s review, but administration will be both supporting them in their preparation of that report ... (and) also receiving the report and then analyzing it and then providing our own report to council,” he said. “We’re basically on track for where we need to be. The critical milestone is getting something in front of council by July.”
Ripley said the city is trying to be as transparent as possible, but limits exist.
“It’s a competitive process and we don’t want to lose any competitive edge that we might have should the decision be made to proceed with the bid,” he said.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said Thursday it’s important there’s adequate opportunity for the public to share their opinions on a potential Olympic bid.
“We’ve always been committed to having this as a very open conversation,” he said.