Tory and Wynne say questions remain on potential Olympic bid

Toronto: The deadline for Toronto to officially express interest in bidding on the 2024 Summer Olympics may be only a week away but Mayor John Tory and Premier Kathleen Wynne say they still have unresolved questions to answer before they can make a decision.
Tory and Wynne met at Queen’s Park on Tuesday morning to discuss a number of issues of mutual concern, including the potential Olympic bid.
Speaking with reporters afterwards, Wynne said she is tentatively interested in going after the games given the success of the recent Pan American Games but wants to get a clearer idea of the costs involved before agreeing to help foot the bill.Wynne also said that the ongoing election and the ensuing uncertainty over the federal government’s participation in any Toronto Olympic bid is also an “added challenge.”
Usually the cost of hosting an Olympic Games is shared evenly by all three levels of government.
“There are a lot of questions and if we still have questions I think the general public would also have questions about what the cost would be, what the role of the various governments would be and what the possibility of using venues that have already been built for the Pan Am Games is,” Wynne said. “I can tell you that on behalf of the people of the province I am not going to rush into something that would put us at risk.”
In January 2014, the city’s economic development committee voted against studying the possibility of going after the 2024 games but the recent success of the Pan American Games and changes to the International Olympic Committee bid process that may reduce the cost have revived the debate and sent city officials scrambling to collect information ahead of the Sept. 15 deadline for written expressions of interest.
Tory would not have to seek the approval of council for submitting an expression of interest but has previously said that he would go to council for their approval before preparing any formal bid.
“I don’t apologize for a second for the fact that we are a bit behind on this because frankly nobody had been pursuing this,” Tory said on Tuesday. “A lot of the enthusiasm about bidding came in the wake of the very successful Pan Am Games and it put us where we are in terms of the timetable.”
Cost of games remains unknown
A 2014 report prepared by Ernst and Young estimated that the cost of submitting a formal bid to host the 2024 Olympics would be between $50 million and $60 million and the cost of actually hosting the games would be $3.3 to $6.9 billion.
Tory, however, told reporters on Tuesday that in order to get a clearer idea of the cost he has to determine whether some of the venues constructed for the Pan American Games, such as the Aquatics Centre in Scarborough and the velodrome in Milton, can be recycled.
Tory also added that the mystery surrounding the cost of hosting the games is making it difficult to get an assurance from Wynne that the province would help cover any cost overruns.
“It would not be reasonable for me to come and say to her ‘Would you just sign a blank check.’,” Tory said.
So far Los Angeles, Budapest, Hamburg, Paris and Rome are bidding to host the 2024 games.