Alberta government will not budge on funding for Calgary 2026 bid

Federal money adds fuel to 2026 debate The federal government leaked what it would pay for a Calgary 2026 bid to the media. Alesia Fieldberg reports.

The provincial government will not be altering how much money they will be putting forward to help Calgary host the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the finance minister announced on Saturday.

Alberta's Finance Minister Joe Ceci told reporters in Edmonton on Saturday that the federal government acted in bad faith when a funding arrangement was leaked to the media on Friday evening.

"For the past number of weeks, along with the City of Calgary, we have been negotiating with the federal government in what we thought was good faith. We cam to our $700M number based on the federal $1.75B 2018 dollars without any kind of 50-50 arrangement."

He says that the details leaked to the media are akin to the government 'moving the goalposts' in the negotiations.

"We need to balance any Olympic funding with many other priorities Albertans count on each and every day like hospitals, schools and roads. We are not planning to change or increase our funding arrangement."

Ceci, when he made the formal announcement about the NDP government’s contribution to the potential bid, made it very clear that that was all they would be paying for the proposal.

"This is not the right way to deal with this. There is no more money to go back to the table with."

Postmedia reported that a vote was held in Ottawa this week to commit $1.75B to the venture as long as Calgary bids on the 2026 Games and wins.

The cash does come with a couple of conditions. First, the provincial and municipal governments would have to increase the amount of money they would contribute to match Ottawa’s funding amount.

The second condition is that the federal government would cancel the funding if Calgary’s plebiscite vote on November 13 goes sour.

Right now, the provincial government has pledged $700M to the bid while the city’s hasn’t said how much it would contribute.

It was originally believed that Ottawa would only commit $1.5B towards Calgary’s bid, so the larger amount comes as somewhat of a surprise to a number of local officials.

“We were surprised to see this number reported for the proposed federal contribution to a potential Calgary 2026 Olympics as negotiations are still underway,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi in a statement.

James Millar, director of communications with Calgary 2026, also said they are still in negotiations about funding.

“We are pleased with the keenness of the federal government on the project. We are still in negotiation and can’t comment further.”

Former Olympians in Calgary say the federal funding committment is great news for Calgary and for Canadian sport.

"Being a born and raised Calgarian, I saw what the Olympics did for Calgary here and not just as an athlete, but as a mother of four kids and to see what it could do for the economy too," said Michelle Cameron Coulter, a gold medallist in swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

She says that the energy from the Games in Calgary just a few months before helped propel Team Canada forwards.

"The excitement of seeing what it was like in the city and that feeling we carried with us for sure."

With the federal money being higher than many people believed it would be, she says that it would be crazy to say no to the Games now.

"To say 'no, we don't want funds coming to our city, we don't want the world in our city'. That's a huge opportunity for us to have that no matter what comes from it and I think we have an opportunity to do it the Calgary way."

Some of the opponents to the bid proposal say the federal announcement of funding is not good news at all.

Erin Waite, the communications lead with No Calgary Olympics, says that the bigger issue will always lie with what Calgarians can afford.

"We're looking at a serious decline in property tax revenues that the city is just dealing with now as they put their budget together. If we look at all that information, as well as the funding, I think it still points to the fact that Calgary cannot afford this."

She says more information needs to be brought forward.

"What will it cost Calgarians, how can we afford this, does this make sense? We don't have those numbers yet and we were promised those at least 30 days before the plebiscite. We were promised robust consultation and neither of those have taken place."

Waite says there is also an added concern because if the bid does proceed, the IOC has a requirement for Calgary to sign a host city agreement, which would bind the city to pay for all cost overruns.

"Calgarians need to know those essentials before they make a decision on plebiscite day."

Calgarians will vote on whether or not to proceed with a bid for the 2026 Games on November 13.

(With files from Alesia Fieldberg)