Council committee examines draft venues plan for potential 2026 Calgary Olympics

A city council committee examined a draftplan on Tuesday for possible Olympics venues in the event that Calgary decides to bid for the 2026 games.

But the details are being kept under wraps for now to protect what officials call the city's "competitive advantage."

The committee also heard a cost estimate for the games should be ready to submit to the federal and provincial governments by the end of this month.

• Calgary city council votes to continue Olympic bid exploration

Mayor Naheed Nenshisaid that's significant because then the other governments can decide how much money they'd be willing to contribute if Calgary makes a bid.

"Getting the multi-party agreement in place, which is the financing from the federal and the provincial governments, really remains the next big political issue here," he said.

"And we're going to be negotiating that through the summer and hopefully we'll be able to come to Calgarians with a deal that makes sense prior to a plebiscite sometime very early in the fall."

January 2019deadline

The Calgary Bid Exploration Committee estimated last year that it would cost $4.6 billion to stage the 2026 Olympics.

The cost of bidding for 2026 is about $30 million, which is being split between the federal and provincial governments and the city, if it goes ahead.

A city plebiscite, which will cost just under $2 million, isn't included in the bid budget.

The deadline for submitting a formal bid to the International Olympic Committee is January 2019.

However, those were 2017 dollars and the full vision of the 2026 games has not been finalized.

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