Calgary councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart says she is unsure about moving ahead with a potential 2026 Winter Olympics bid.
She was among the councillors who last month voted to move forward on an Olympic bid. Now she says it’s time to reconsider the whole project because of the province’s condition that any money for a bid would only be released if the city holds a plebiscite.
“We have a vote in front of us at council now, which was a close vote as you know,” the Ward 13 councillor said on Tuesday. “But I’m open to a reconsideration motion in looking at this now, due to the untenable situation we’ve been put in with the strings that are attached to taxpayer money. To me, that has changed everything.”
Colley-Urquhart said she is concerned about the timeline to hold a proper plebiscite — there’s just not enough time to get it all organized before the bid is due.
A Global News-Ipsos poll released Tuesday showed that a majority of Calgarians favoured bidding for the Olympics, though there were concerns about how it was going to be paid for.
With files from Doug Vaessen