Should Calgary Bid on the 2026 Olympics

[Slava]

I still think this plebiscite passes. There’s a fair amount of opposition, but frankly a pile of that is from people who aren’t in Calgary. I realize that lots in the city are as well, but people like Cory Morgan on Twitter aren’t in the city, so despite being vocal opponents, they can’t vote anyway. We see the same thing from some posters here.

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

But it is your money, all of it except for the IOC portion. Where do you think the money from the 3 levels of government comes from?

The IOC’s contribution, about two third’s of the province’s cut, and about 90% of the fed’s cut is someone else’s money in my books.

About time it gets spent here.

edit: gut guesses on the splits obviously but you get the point

[nik-]

What a silly point of view. It went to provincial or federal tax pots first so it's no longer my money.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

Anyone who votes down billions of dollars of someone else’s money being spent in our city can move to Edmonton.

Hopefully the no side is just a noisy minority.

Do you mean 3 billion of our money or 1.5?

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by GGG

Do you mean 3 billion of our money or 1.5?

A little shy of a billion by my cocktail napkin assessment based on the premise that only a slice of the province’s cut is Calgary’s.

I do respect your case on this GGG though. Sound logic and arguements for the no side.

[FireGilbert]

The turning down free money argument seems a bit like the Nigerian Prince scam. All you have to do is spend millions of dollars and you will have access to a billion dollars! In this case you actually do get the billion dollars however it is all blown on a two week party.

If I still lived in Calgary I'd be voting no. I believe the economic benefits are overstated and without substantial infrastructure funding included there is very little to entice the average Calgarian. My dad will be voting no though and wow is he ever angry at Nenshi and the overall bid process.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

A little shy of a billion by my cocktail napkin assessment based on the premise that only a slice of the province’s cut is Calgary’s.

I do respect your case on this GGG though. Sound logic and arguements for the no side.

That’s an interesting way of looking at by prorating our pop vs Canada and Alberta.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by jayswin

"Fiscal conservatives" as a general rule aren't actually fiscally conservative. They just don't want their money going to other citizens.

In fact it's because of taxes helping lower income families/mentally ill/injured/sick that wealthy citizens want things like hockey arenas/events etc, because they feel like it's personal value for their tax dollars. Something they get to enjoy.

What a load of crap. I'm a fiscal conservative and I donate a hell of a lot in money, time and services every year, most of it with no tax receipt. Fiscal conservatives don't think that a huge bloated government bureaucracy should be everything to everyone.

[gasman]

Originally Posted by craigwd

Absolutely untrue.

The Bidco budget was built by asking the venue managers what needs to be done and having them create the estimates. Similarly the security budget was built by asking CPS and RCMP to create their own estimated costs based on previous events.

As for the contingency fund, that is for unforseen spending on top of those budgets. It does not get used if not needed.

Definition of contingency


AACE International has defined contingency as "An amount added to an estimate to allow for items, conditions, or events for which the state, occurrence, or effect is uncertain and that experience shows will likely result, in aggregate, in additional costs. Typically estimated using statistical analysis or judgment based on past asset or project experience. Contingency usually excludes:

Major scope changes such as changes in end product specification, capacities, building sizes, and location of the asset or project
Extraordinary events such as major strikes and natural disasters
Management reserves
Escalation and currency effects

Contingency by definition. Is expected to be spent.

I'm sure that they did some legwork to define scope but my point is, until you have construction drawings complete you aren't even in the neighbourhood of +/- 20% and in my opinion the estimate presented should be taken as an order of magnitude, best case scenario.

Glad they asked CPS and the RCMP what security would cost, do you think their actual answer was less than the cost to provide security to the G7 in Quebec or the 2010 games in Van?, or do you thinks someone on the Bidco was more likely to take whatever number they gave and knock 25% off because "this time will be different".

[RM14]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

But it is your money, all of it except for the IOC portion. Where do you think the money from the 3 levels of government comes from?

Well the 1.5 billion of all Canadians (Federal) money isn't getting spent in Calgary if we dont have an international event. Another city in Canada will raise their hand and get it. The IOC is giving 1.2 bill. Then another $2BB will come in during the games as operating revenue to offset operating costs. The city portion is covering unfunded capital projects that will be needed to be dealt with in the next 2-4 budgets. The province portion is the one I least understand unless its upgrading the mountain corridor cluster venues that will be hosting event, which I assume it is.

[zhulander]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Calgary/com...hread/e8spgtw/


CFO for the City of Calgary says 20% increase for property taxes if budget is correct. Hopefully the council video will come out soon to confirm this number.

[RM14]

Originally Posted by zhulander

https://www.reddit.com/r/Calgary/com...hread/e8spgtw/


CFO for the City of Calgary says 20% increase for property taxes if budget is correct. Hopefully the council video will come out soon to confirm this number.

Perfect reddit links

[topfiverecords]

20%

Lol

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

20%

Lol

If you ask BidCo how much it would go up by they would say something along the lines of “we should have that info shortly”

I’ll also be interested if they find out if they can actually get 200 mil in insurance before the plebiscite.

[Flamenspiel]

nm

[Mr.Coffee]

So one thing about the property tax increases if the Yes vote goes through... would those increases be temporary to support the bid and then once the spend is done, reduce property taxes back to 'pre-Olympics' profiles?

Somehow I suspect that becomes a permanent increase. And that's sort of the issue... you may be able to convince me to do like a 2-3 year increase to pay off the Calgary portion required. But that increase will last for the next few decades I own the home, and thus the cost will be actually fairly large and not worth it to me.

Also, is there any way to actually calculate what my increase would be? I tried to find a few numbers online, but couldn't really find enough detail to try and back calculate.

[nik-]

Temporary tax increases. Oh my sweet summer child.

[craigwd]

Originally Posted by gasman

Glad they asked CPS and the RCMP what security would cost, do you think their actual answer was less than the cost to provide security to the G7 in Quebec or the 2010 games in Van?, or do you thinks someone on the Bidco was more likely to take whatever number they gave and knock 25% off because "this time will be different".

Yes and BidCo repeatedly said the number provided was the number they used.
It was based on the G7, 2010 Olympic Games, 2015 Pan Am Games etc.

It is lower because the clusters are so much smaller and technologies are that much better + technology developed for Tokyo are very state of the art.

So no, there was no manipulation of the number.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by nik-

Temporary tax increases. Oh my sweet summer child.

Exactly. Here's a way veiled way to ramp up taxes. I mean sure, short-term the jump gets absorbed by the costs of the Olympics but long term, now we have a justifiable higher base.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by nik-

Temporary tax increases.

The latter are never the former.