CANMORE, Alta. — The mayor of Canmore says he's disappointed that Calgarians have rejected a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
John Borrowman, who has lived in Canmore since before the 1988 Calgary Games, and the rest of town council had recently voted 6-1 to support another bid as a co-host.
"I am really disappointed, of course, and I really believed in the future benefits of hosting the games here," he said Wednesday in an interview. "The investment would have been well worth it and I really believed that the risk that people were concerned about was manageable."
The 2026 bid is essentially over after a majority of Calgarians voted "No" in a plebiscite Tuesday.
Calgary city council, which was already nervous and divided over bidding, is expected to officially end the effort on Monday.
Canmore was the site of Nordic ski events in 1988, and would have held some events again as part of a successful bid.
Borrowman said the town also would have built an athlete's village with 242 units as part of its commitment as co-host.
"At the end of the Games, all of those units would have been repurposed into affordable housing," he said. "That was a really important piece of the planning for the town of Canmore.
"We've been working on trying to address our housing need for 20 years, trying to development housing that's affordable for people who live and work here."
Borrowman said those 242 units would have more than doubled the number of units that have been built in the Rocky Mountain town west of Calgary.
"More importantly, it carried some funding from other levels of government," he said. "Trying to get grant funding from other levels of government for affordable housing is really hard, so that made the whole project viable for the town of Canmore."
In addition, he said, there would have been many cultural events held in Canmore.
"I was here in 1988 ... I remember a very positive impact, and there was so much excitement in the community," he said. "It brought the community together in a way that nothing else can do. It defined our community."
The spotlight that the 1988 Winter Olympics put on Canmore was also part of the concern for some residents.
"It's hard to imagine that there wouldn't have been an increased rate of visitation and that putting the Bow Valley on the public stage wouldn't have had an impact also on population growth," said Hilary Young of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, an environmental organization based in Canmore.
"We are already experiencing growth and that's unlikely to stop any time soon, but the feeling was that it would have exacerbated it, and it would have in turn exacerbated our existing challenges to co-exist with wildlife in this valley."
Young said she's relieved the bid isn't going ahead, but noted her group was having good conversations with the bid committee about creating a nature legacy from the Games.
"There was talk about the greenest Games in history," she said. "I was optimistic we might have been involved ... but ultimately it's fair to say there's some relief."
— By Colette Derworiz in Edmonton. Follow @cderworiz on Twitter
The Canadian Press
