On Nov. 13 Calgarians will be asked if they the city should host the 2026 Winter Olympics in a non-binding plebiscite.
The question is did anyone else, namely the provincial government, think about asking the rest of us?
If the bid goes forward and is successful Canadian and Alberta taxpayers are on the hook for a pretty big chunk of change. More than $2 billions worth, with $1.45 billion being federal money while $700 million would come from the province.
The rest of the estimated $5.1 billion cost would come from the City of Calgary, $390 million, plus $150 million credit for previous financial commitment to improve a downtown district that would be a Games hub and Town of Canmore, $3 million along with an estimated $2.23 billion from games revenues, including a $1.2-billion contribution from the International Olympic Committee in cash and services.
Is your head swimming yet? I agree with our former premier Jim Prentice when he said math is hard.
Then there is the whole question of who is going to pay if the Olympics don’t come in at that figure (and projects this size rarely do). So far none of the governments are stepping up and I don’t blame them.
Proponents of going forward with the bid, point to the previous games Canada has hosted in Calgary in 1988 and Vancouver 2010 both of which supposedly broke even or made a profit. I say supposedly because I have major doubts about Vancouver.
A year before the 2010 Olympics, B.C Premier Gordon Campbell went on the record promising British Columbians the cost of the Olympics would be $600 million.
But B.C.’s Auditor General begged to differ saying the province had failed to acknowledge $170 million in additional Olympic costs, continuing on to say “the full cost of staging the games should include a number of items that are not included in the official budget.”
Those items include $47 million for the 2010 Secretariat and $21 million for the pavilions in Turin and Beijing and the $1 billion in security. At the end of the day, the Vancouver Olympics is estimated to cost the various taxpayers $7 billion.
Of course, there are economic benefits that also come from hosting the Olympic Games. In the case of Vancouver, depending on whose numbers you believe, hosting the Games generated upwards of $4 billion in economic activity and it improved the city’s infrastructure.
I will argue, the economic benefits were limited to B.C.’s lower mainland. I for one didn’t see a lot of economic benefits trickle down to the Okanagan where I was living at the time. And I would wager any benefits of Calgary hosting the 2026 games would be similarly narrow. Of course that is just the monetary benefits, there are the intangibles such as inspiring a generation of young people, which is why I suspect why Barrhead’s Olympian Melissa Lotholz is throwing her support behind the bid. And I’m not sure I don’t agree with her, but considering that all Albertans are going to have to foot the bill I think we should all have a say in the outcome.
