{"id":46314,"date":"2018-11-24T18:54:35","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T01:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=46314"},"modified":"2021-02-07T22:43:44","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T05:43:44","slug":"negative-opinions-expressed-at-second-olympic-open-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/11\/24\/negative-opinions-expressed-at-second-olympic-open-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Negative opinions expressed at second Olympic open house"},"content":{"rendered":"

h<\/span>ttps:\/\/youtu.be\/g-eYV–95Qo<\/p>\n

M<\/span>ore than 100 residents attended the city’s second public engagement session on a potential 2026 Winter Olympics bid, and a majority\u00a0 expressed a negative opinion of the bid.<\/p>\n

Local resident Dianne Bailie, who attended the session at Hotel Blackfoot on Oct. 17, was unsure how much the games would cost Calgary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that there\u2019s enough dollar amounts established from the various places that they\u2019re going to get them from to know how much Calgary itself is going to be in for at the end of the day,” Bailie said.<\/p>\n

She was also concerned about the locations of the Olympic events if the games were to happen in 2026, and remained undecided about whether to support the bid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want the opening ceremony to be in Edmonton,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bruce Hamilton and Sandra Kelly, city residents who attended the session, were also concerned about the impact on the economy, as well as, the $2.5 billion in public investment the Olympic corporation has asked for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t enough information here. We still don\u2019t know how much the federal government will put in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hamilton and Kelly said the public engagement session didn\u2019t provide enough information to satisfy their concerns and they will be voting \u201cno\u201d in the Nov. 13 plebiscite.<\/p>\n

Ward 9 Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra, who also attended the public engagement session, said that the city has money, but the question is whether residents want to spend that money on the games.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalgary Olympic experience in \u201888 is one of the most successful Olympic legacies in the history of the Olympic movement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Carra said when Calgary hosted the games in 1988 there were no gold medals won, but those legacy facilities have since trained athletes who are bringing gold for the country.<\/p>\n

These facilities are 40 years old and now require an upgrade, which they can get in 2026 with the Olympic games.<\/p>\n

Carra said the Olympics represent an opportunity for Calgary to leverage some of the tax dollars that are sent out to the province, as well as the country, and spend them instead on facilities \u201cwe need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erin Waite, from the No Calgary Olympics<\/a> campaign, was at the public engagement, concerned about the strain of hosting the games on the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the risk is carried by the city of Calgary, so even if the federal government and the provincial government participate and step up with some funding all the risk is still on Calgary and we have to understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said participating in the Olympics is \u201cterrific\u201d and a \u201cwonderful thing\u201d but the International Olympic Committee\u00a0<\/a>(IOC) has a host city contract which \u201cdictates\u201d the time and locations for the Olympics.<\/p>\n

Unless the IOC reforms itself, it\u2019s not a \u201cgood idea\u201d to get involved, said Waite.<\/p>\n

She said there are projects the city will be unable to focus one because of the Olympics and that is a \u201cfrightening distraction\u201d from what is important for residents.<\/p>\n

Don Goodrow of the Yes Calgary 2026<\/a> campaign, who was also at the hotel, said he\u2019s \u201cpassionate\u201d about hosting the games again in 2026 because of the community engagement and the legacy of the games in 1988.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was involved in the \u201888 Olympics and those of us who were, we still remember fondly and with pride what we were able to do there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Goodrow said he also \u201cbelieved” the economics would work because of the existing Olympic facilities.<\/p>\n

The capital cost of the facilities will then be $1.6 billion and the city already spends \u201cabout the same amount\u201d on capital each year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 100 residents came to the second public engagement session by the City of Calgary, on a potential 2026 Winter Olympics bid, majority of which expressed a negative opinion. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":523,"featured_media":46404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S2 Olympic public engagement","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13,21,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-46314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-city","8":"category-news","9":"category-professional-sports","10":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/523"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46314"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47741,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46314\/revisions\/47741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}