OLYMPIC FUNDING DEAL
It will be ‘very good: Calgary chair
With speculation swirling around what a cost-sharing agreement for Calgary hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics might mean for taxpayers, the head of the bid corporation is urging patience while negotiations continue.
“We’re confident that we’ll get a very good deal done with our three orders of government,” said Scott Hutcheson, chair of Calgary 2026. “We think next week will be an announcement on how the funding plays out.”
During a meeting with the Postmedia Calgary’s editorial board on Thursday, Hutcheson revealed that the province’s contribution of $700 million came as no surprise.
“The province was pretty clear to us about what kind of contribution they thought they could give and that number was $700 million as early as June,” he said.
Calgary 2026’s current plan pegs the total public investment required to host the Games at $3 billion.
Some pro-bid city councillors, concerned about the financial burden the city will ultimately bear, have expressed disappointment at the amount the province contributed. Unofficial projections had previously suggested the provincial share needed to be closer to $1 billion.
But bid corporation CEO Mary Moran said Thursday people shouldn’t conclude the province’s contribution was too low.
“We’re still negotiating with two other orders of government. It’s an assumption people are making that they shouldn’t make, that we’re going to fall short,” she said.
During Thursday’s editorial board meeting, Calgary 2026 officials shared their thoughts on the economic benefit of the Games to Calgary and the challenge the organization is facing in getting their message out.
The group emphasized hosting the Games could result in a $4.4 billion in investment flowing into the beleaguered Calgary economy from private sources and other orders of government.
Moran said the Olympics are the city ’s best economic play and a chance to broaden Calgary ’s reputation on the world stage as more than just an oil-and-gas centre — which could be key, she said, to alleviating the ongoing downtown office vacancy crisis.
“At this point in this downturn, this is the best opportunity for Calgary
At this point in this downturn, this is the best opportunity for Calgary and for the future, to start to tell a new story about Calgary.
and for the future, to start to tell a new story about Calgary,” Moran said. “The reality is there aren’t that many projects that have this kind of investment that are coming to Calgary.
“There’s not a better global platform for us to tell that story.”
Calgary 2026 officials also expressed consternation Thursday that Calgarians are hearing mixed messages on the bid, with competing and even contradictory messages coming from different sources.
In a bid to cut through the noise, the bid corporation is hoping to “flood the market” with media, events and face-to-face meetings with non-profits groups, student organizations, corporations, unions and clubs.
Hutcheson said Calgary 2026 has been left with a truncated timeline for public engagement after months spent reviewing budgets and negotiating with government partners.
He said it’s left them in the position of having to make an “intense” sprint on communications ahead of the Olympic plebiscite next month. Calgarians will vote on the Olympics on Nov. 13.