Progress for Calgary 2026 Plebiscite

(ATR) The Calgary committee formed to oversee a possible bid for the 2026 Winter Games is still working out details on a plebiscite.

The committee, meeting on Tuesday, agreed to the basic wording of the question to be put to Calgary voters.

As it stands, the question reads ‘Do you support or do you oppose the City of Calgary’s participation in hosting the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games?’ according to the Calgary Herald.

To make sure voters understand their choices, the yes or no options would come with explanations: ‘Yes, I support the City of Calgary’s participation’ or ‘No, I oppose the City of Calgary’s participation’.

Committee members are looking to add the cost of hosting to the question once financial details are released in June.

An agreement for funding of a bid among the three levels of government and the private sector is not expected to be ironed out before September or October while a decision on whether to bid must be made by January, the deadline to submit 2026 bid books to the IOC.

Those dates could help explain why the committee was told on Tuesday that November is the likely month to hold the plebiscite.

The provincial government of Alberta made the plebiscite a condition to funding a third of the CAN$30 million it will cost to bid for 2026. The Canadian government and the city of Calgary are each also paying about a third of the cost.

Plans to hold non-statutory public hearings of council to gain input from Calgarians appears to be dead, with Nenshi telling reporters that holding a plebiscite makes a public hearing nothing more than "window dressing".

A bid corporation is in the process of being constructed. Nenshi told reporters a chair is expected to be named within days with a chief executive officer to be announced within a month. Until the bid corporation is up and running, a city of Calgary project team remains in charge of the bid work.

Calgary is one of seven 2026 bids in the IOC’s dialogue stage and one of two facing a public vote on whether to bid. Sion and the Swiss canton of Valais are holding a referendum on June 10.

Graz, Austria could also face a referendum on its bid to host the 2026 Winter Games. Sapporo plans to conduct a public survey to determine whether the 1972 Winter Olympics host city will bid for 2026 or 2030.

The other candidates currently in the dialogue stage are Stockholm, Sweden; Cortina d"Ampezzo, Milan and Turin, Italy; and Erzurum, Turkey.

Written by Gerard Farek

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