Council gets peek at Games costs, public must wait

City council got a preview of Calgary 2026’s Olympic hosting plans in a closed-door meeting Tuesday, just days ahead of an off-ramp vote that could kill any further work on a potential bid.

Reaction from council members emerging from the in-camera session was mixed Tuesday, but Olympic committee chair Evan Woolley promised that the information discussed will soon be released to the public.

“Next week, Calgarians will be given the vast majority of the information they need to make a decision on whether (we) should or shouldn’t host an Olympics, that will include capital costs as well as operating budgets associated with the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Woolley said.

Details of the hosting plan will become public at the Sept. 10 council meeting, the same day council is scheduled to vote on whether to kill the bid or proceed to a plebiscite on the Olympics in November.

What won’t be revealed at Monday’s meeting are specifics of the multi-party agreement regarding the cost-sharing commitments from the different levels of government.

“We’re hoping by the very beginning of October, which is well before the plebiscite, that (Calgarians) will have that cost-share before them with more than 30 days to make that decision,” Woolley said.

A condition of the province’s agreement to cover the $2-million cost of a November plebiscite on the Games is that the city conduct at least 30 days of factual public engagement in advance.

On Tuesday, Woolley revealed that the city has awarded a contract to Vancouver-based firm Context to begin a 10-week program of public engagement as early as next week.

“I think you’re going to see an unbelievably robust, broad and in-depth engagement with Calgarians around a whole range of topics in the coming 10 weeks,” Woolley said.

But Woolley ’s council colleague, Coun. Druh Farrell, was less enthusiastic in her summation of Tuesday’s closed-door meeting.

“I remain concerned about the financial aspect of this,” Farrell said.

“If we move forward and (we see an) impact on debt, we would be really putting all our energy into sport. I think sport is incredibly important to Calgary, but it would leave very little room for other priorities.”

Coun. Jeromy Farkas said his biggest concern is that Calgarians still don’t have all the facts with a plebiscite looming.

“I’m just very frustrated, very disappointed that all these details, really key information to making a decision, have still been kept incamera,” Farkas said.

“Council has frankly failed in our obligation to our duty to consult and engage the public. We were promised (engagement) opportunities as early as April, but now it’s September, (less than) 70 days out and there’s very little meaningful opportunities for Calgarians to be able to weigh in terms of what they want to get out of the Games.”

Council also learned Tuesday that the Olympic off-ramp vote scheduled for Monday’s meeting could actually occur the following day, on Sept. 11, to accommodate a presentation by the bid corporation Calgary 2026.