Jason Kenney remains 'skeptical' on Calgary 2026 Olympic cost estimate

Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney told reporters Tuesday he remains "skeptical" about the projected $3 billion cost of Calgary hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics.

"Recent Winter Olympics have been orders of magnitude more expensive," said the United Conservative Party leader. "Didn't they spend over $40 billion in Russia? Maybe that's an extreme example, but I think we really need to see the details that are behind these projections and the estimated margin for error.

"I think most Calgarians would love to see the Olympics in principlebut are asking themselves if this is affordable at this time."

• Alberta pledges maximum of $700M for possible 2026 Calgary Olympics

The province announced $700 million in funding for a potential 2026 Olympic bid last week.

Calgary 2026, the bid corporation, has predicted $5.23 billion would be needed to host the event and $3 billion of that would need to come from various levels of government, with the remainder paid for by Games' revenues.

The federal contribution is expected to be $1.5 billion, however no announcement has been made.

Kenney made the comments in a scrum with reporters following a noon-hour speech at the Canadian Club in downtown Calgary.

Stop apologizing for oil industry

His comments to the crowd centred mainly on the province's oil and gas industry, something Kenney said Albertans should stop being "apologetic and defensive" about.

"As you know, last Friday, we experienced the biggest price discount in the history of Canadian energy," he said. "West Texas Intermediate was priced at over $70 a barrel, Western Canada oil was selling for $20 a barrel, a $50 discount that represents a loss to Canada's economy of $100 million a day, $37 billion a year."

Kenney added he hopes "by now, most of us understand why this is happening."

"As our energy production has increased in the past decade, we have been incapable of getting an incremental barrel of oil, or even of natural gas, to coastal markets, so the United States gets to choose what to pay us for our oil," he said.

And more and more oil is being transported by rail, said Kenney, which is "crowding out other commodities."

"I believe, this is an issue which can and should unite Canadians across a partisan and regional spectrum within Canada," he said.

UCPelection platform

Looking forward to the next provincial election, Kenney said a "realistic platform" will be released by UCP in the spring, which will "reignite the economy and get to a balanced budget in first term of government, in a thoughtful and careful way."

"Albertans understand that there is no alternative," he said. "The only alternative is massively raising taxes, and that kills more jobs. What we're saying is, either we keep kicking the fiscal can down the field, or we deal with it through some fiscal responsibility."

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