As the City of Calgary continues to ponder a bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics, it’s important for all Canadians to contact their elected officials and ask questions about the costs associated with hosting the event.

Yes, it’s not just Calgary taxpayers who have to be mindful of the financial implications of an Olympic bid, the City of Calgary has said it will only proceed if it receives enormous cheques from Ottawa and the Alberta government.

But before we get into numbers, let’s reflect on the obvious for a moment – it would be great to see Wayne Gretzky drop the puck at a gold medal Olympic hockey game in Calgary or to watch another Jamaican Bobsled team compete. Without a doubt, the Olympics can be quite exciting and could be a proud moment for our country.

However, governments still need to be smart about this opportunity and shouldn’t let emotions get in the way of making sound financial decisions.

Many had hoped that a 2026 Olympics bid would be financially viable given that a number of facilities built for the 1988 Calgary Olympics could be reused … unfortunately the numbers still don’t add up.

The City of Calgary’s Olympic bid report expects revenues from the 2026 Olympic Games to come in at approximately $2.2 billion while expenses are estimated to reach $4.6 billion. In other words, there’s a $2.4 billion shortfall.

Included in the draft budget is a contribution from the federal government of $1.8 billion. The contribution from the provincial government is less clear, but it too would be quite sizable.

As Ottawa is currently running a $28-billion deficit, where would it find nearly $2 billion for the Olympics? How much would the City of Calgary have to raise property taxes by to pay for its share? Would the provincial government raise taxes to pay its bill? It would be interesting to hear elected officials answer these questions.

You might also wish to ask your local politicians about cost overruns. According to a 2016 report from the University of Oxford, 19 of the last 19 Olympic Games (1976-2016) went over budget. Yes, you read that correctly – the Olympics have cost more than expected 19 times in a row.

The same study calculated that cost overruns for those Olympic Games averaged 156 per cent.

The City of Calgary’s Olympic bid committee did include "contingency" amounts in its budget to help cover off cost overruns. However, those amounts only seem to allow for cost overruns in the neighbourhood of 10 per cent.

If a 2026 Olympic Games in Calgary did go over budget, who would pay for the cost overruns? How much would the federal government have to pay? What would the province and city’s share look like?

Finally, given that all three levels of government would likely have to borrow large sums of money to pay their share for the Olympics, how much would be spent on debt interest costs? What would be the timetable for repaying those borrowed funds?

Again, it would be exciting to see Calgary host the 2026 Olympics, but the government needs to be very cautious about this decision. We can’t let the thought of two weeks of Olympic euphoria cloud what could be an enormous financial hangover for taxpayers.