The City of Calgary has been named one of the three candidate cities for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games by the International Olympic Committee on Thursday.
The group made the announcement during a news conference in Argentina.
Calgary will join Stockholm, Sweden and Milan-Cortina, Italy as the remaining candidate cities for the event.
The IOC also dropped Ezurum, Turkey from the candidature list and a fifth city, Sapporo, Japan, dropped its bid earlier this year.
Officials say Turkey was disqualified because it would cost too much to build infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the province is promising that Calgarians will know how much the province will kick in to a bid before the vote next month.
"We will provide all information in advance of the plebiscite from the province of Alberta; of course we will," said Finance Minister Joe Ceci.
Calgary-Centre MP Kent Hehr says that the federal government will likely wait until after the plebiscite vote is tallied before any figures are made public.
"We can't put the cart before the horse obviously. We're looking forward to what the citizens of this great city decide. Of course, our government is very interested in supporting local communities doing big things and the Olympics is a very big thing but first things first."
Mayor Nenshi says that he was pleased that the IOC praised Calgary in the announcement on Thursday morning and called it an important step in the process.
"My job continues to be the same. I continue to fight to get that good deal for Calgarians. I hope to have that great deal and I hope to present it to Calgarians long in advance to the plebiscite so that they can make their decision."
Kate Jacobson, the representative of a group that wants to change the thinking of Calgarians about the 2026 bid to focus more on what the money spent on a bid could do for the city.
Better Spent 2026 says that there are plenty of priority project that could improve the quality of life for all Calgarians much more than a three-week long sports event ever could.
"I think the process of deciding what these things are should be democratic and it should be all encompassing, so we get to see as many people as possible what they want Calgary to look like in 2026."
Jacobson says that people should vote no in the upcoming plebiscite vote, but not for the reason that many think of.
"We’re asking people to vote no because we don’t think the Olympics aligns with Calgarians values. We think that we should see spending that aligns with our values, things that are important to us and things that will make our city an important place."
During the IOC announcement on Thursday morning, Juan Antonio Samaranch, the organization's vice president, boasted that there would be no cost for hosting the Games.
"It's a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for the people living in that community. At no cost.That is the new norm; at no cost. No infrastructure that is not going to be used in the Games will be built," he said. "The budget is going to be self-sustained.The IOC, plus the ticketing, plus local sponsors will pay 100 percent of the organizing committee's budget at least. This is how the new norm works."
Jacobson says she is leery about such a claim, saying that she can't remember an Olympics that didn't have cost overruns at some point.
"The IOC is also a very wasteful and a very unaccountable organization. I think Calgarians should take a good long hard look at those messages about how great the Olympics will be for Calgary are coming from and who actually stands to benefit from the Olympics being in this city."
Calgarians will vote on whether to bid on the Games on November 13.
