City of Calgary apologizes for posting incorrect Olympic bid information

The City of Calgary issued a release Saturday afternoon stating that an incorrect version of the Olympic bid dialogue stage update was shared with council and ended up posted on the city’s website.

The report had stated that the city received confirmation of financial support from both the federal and provincial governments to support a 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games bid corporation.

READ MORE: Province of Alberta, feds commit to funding Calgary’s 2026 Olympic bid process

The statement from the city released on Saturday states that the city has had positive “indications” from both levels of government but “no formal or final funding confirmation has been received.”

The news release from city administration apologizes for the error and states there was no intent to mislead the public or city council.  

“The version of the report that was posted online was a version that had been prepared in the hope of receiving formal funding approval ahead of next week’s strategic meeting of council. It was mistakenly posted,” the statement read.

A correct version of the report will be shared with council and released to the public, according to the news release.

Councillor Druh Farrell sent out a tweet Saturday morning expressing her concerns about the information being released on Friday.

Olympic update was inadvertently released to the media yesterday. This is the second accidental release of information. I don’t buy it. It’s unacceptable that Council continues to learn of key information on this massive project through the media. #yyccc #yyc

— Druh Farrell (@DruhFarrell) March 17, 2018

“Olympic update was inadvertently released to the media yesterday. This is the second accidental release of information. I don’t buy it. It’s unacceptable that council continues to learn of key information on this massive project through the media.”  said Farrell in her tweet.

On Friday, it was reported that both the province and the federal government would each contribute $10 million dollars to a Bid Corportaion (BidCo).

The bid corporation would  work on establishing a budget to host the 2026 Games and prepare a bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) if the city decides to move forward.

READ MORE: Evidence should trump emotion in Calgary Olympic bid talks: Mayor Nenshi

Ward 11 councillor Jeromy Farkas is calling for a plebiscite on hosting the Olympics.

“What we see from the most recent report is apparently we jumped the gun on inadvertently releasing it to the media, that the federal and provincial governments were on board when it seemed that upon reflection, they might not actually be,” Farkas said Saturday morning.