City needs to guard taxpayers’ interests

In 1970, former Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau said: “The Olympics can no more run a deficit than a man can have a baby.” Well, he had his baby in the way of a $1.6-billion cost overrun that took Montreal taxpayers 30 years to repay.

All governments are already heavily burdened by debt and excessive spending while interest rates are on the upswing. Calgary is still in the grips of recession and has an eight-per-cent unemployment rate and the highest-ever office vacancy rates downtown.

Al of these warning signs are willingly being ignored by special-interest groups which have already made up their minds and which stand to benefit from a taxpayersupported Olympic Games. They are ready to gamble the taxpayers’ interests with their own. They are part of a spending culture that wants it now and pay for it later.

There are many worthy infrastructure projects (worth billions) that can easily replace the cost of an Olympic Games and will benefit and improve the quality of life in a growing city for all Calgarians for many years to come. The question is, why are we gambling with taxpayers’ dollars for an Olympic Games with all of the above information?

It is a good thing that the other orders of government will not fork out any taxpayers funds until after a vote by the people.

In any event, Calgarians are not interested in committing to Olympic Games that are not all-inclusive (as in key events would be held elsewhere). So let’s be financially responsible. If we can’t afford it, don’t do it.

John Schmal, Calgary, a former alderman