Calgary will continue to look at a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

City councillors voted in favour of an additional $2 million to further examine the benefits of an Olympic Games in the city, after a $5-million study from the Calgary Bid Exploration Committee showed the event could help the city economically.

The conclusion is based on a pair of independent studies -- but another pair of dissenting studies were only given to council in summary, with full versions available upon request.

Jeromy Farkas, one of the four city councillors who voted against the additional funding, says the dissenting reports have been “hidden” from councillors and the public and he wants to know why.

“Frankly, it’s not good enough,” he told reporters following the vote. “As a councillor, what sort of recourse do I have when important information like this is hidden from the public?”

“I think it's time to cut our losses, especially given the fact that the initial $5 million that we allocated to this endeavor was not sufficient.”

Officials say the extra $2 million will be used to find out if the goals in the report are feasible. Only half of the money will be available until the federal and provincial governments say how much they are willing to contribute to the bid.

The city is already facing a $150 million budget shortfall for 2018. Early estimates show the Games would cost about $4.6 billion.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi represented one of the nine votes in favour of keeping the Olympic dream alive.

He says even if council decides in the end not to move forward with a formal bid to the International Olympic Committee, having all the information in front of them before making that decision is worth the additional $2 million.

“It may well be that once these questions are answered, council chooses not to continue, but I think this is a risk well worth taking,” he said.

Eugene Beaulieu, professor of Economics at the University of Calgary, told CTV Calgary on Monday the costs to host the Olympics almost always exceed a city’s budget and the economic benefits aren’t always as advertised.

“The track record is not very good,” he said. “They cost a lot of money and the returns on them are a little bit difficult to measure, a little bit difficult to quantify, but the costs are real and the costs are large.”

Council also voted to look at the possibility of a split-city Olympics, where they could possibly use facilities in Edmonton, Vancouver and Whistler to cut costs.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, IOC executive director Christophe Dubi said he was “extremely happy” that Calgary decided to keep looking at a potential bid.

"Calgary has got tremendous assets to bid,” he said. "You have tremendous capabilities to host in Canada. You have very good expertise in Games organization. You also have the support of the population for winter sport in general. It's a die-hard sport-loving nation. I think you have all the raw materials to do something extraordinary."

The possible Olympic bid will be brought before council again in the New Year.

A formal bid will have to be presented to the IOC by January 2019. Salt Lake City, Utah, Sapporo, Japan and Lillehammer, Norway are among the cities also rumored to be planning a bid.

With a report from CTV Calgary’s Bill Macfarlane and with files from The Canadian Press