City continues to hold open houses to gather input on Olympic bid

Olympic open house The city hosts its first open house on the proposed 2026 Olympic bid. Shaun Frenette has more.

The city continues to host public information sessions to engage with Calgarians and gather input on how people feel about hosting another Olympics in 2026

An open house will be held at Dalhousie Community Association on Tuesday evening and the goal is to understand whether Calgarians think hosting the games will help or hinder the city’s future.

There are still concerns about funding a potential Olympic bid.

It will cost an estimated $5.2 billion to host the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and the total cost to the public is pegged at $3 billion.

If Calgary wins the bid, the province says it will commit $700 million. Under a policy for international hosting, the federal government could chip in as much as $1.5 billion and the rest would have to be covered by the city.

The public engagement campaign is well underway and the city is hosting a number of open houses over the next few weeks:

A plebiscite will be held on November 13 to give Calgarians a chance to weigh in on whether or not Calgary should make a bid for the games.

Cities were invited to bid for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games by the IOC earlier this month.

Invited candidates must submit a formal bid proposal by January and a host city will be selected by the IOC Session in September 2019.

For more information on public engagement for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, click HERE.

For more on Calgary’s potential bid for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, click HERE.