Bob Mackin
The tourism minister responsible for B.C. co-hosting the 2026 World Cup said the NDP government told FIFA it wants more matches at B.C. Place Stadium, if one of the other 15 cities cannot deliver.
“Why couldn’t we host eight or nine or 10?” Spencer Chandra Herbert told CTV News. “We made that offer.”
NDP minister Spencer Chandra Herbert (right) with FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani on June 11, 2025 outside B.C. Place Stadium.(Mackin)
On June 24, the government released an updated budget for seven matches and the FIFA Fan Festival in June and July 2026. The $624 million estimate is more than double the original 2022 budget and will go higher, because the province needs more federal security funding.
Chandra Herbert spokesperson Jill Nessel told theBreaker.news that he was “unavailable for an interview at this time” and refused to say when he might be available.
The FIFA budget hike came the week after the Ministry of Health discontinued its $1 million a year payment for a drug to treat a nine-year-old Langford girl with a rare disease. The parents of Batten disease patient Charleigh Pollock were told that Canada’s Drug Agency recommended it stop funding the drug. Premier David Eby dismissed granting an exemption. He said June 25 that he prefers physicians, instead of politicians, make the decisions.
“There is no happy solution here,” Eby said.
Coincidentally, Chandra Herbert’s son Dev was diagnosed with a rare disease. Chandra Herbert revealed in May 2023 that he had relocated from his Vancouver West End riding to the Victoria suburb Colwood because of his son’s medical needs. The BC United opposition had discovered Chandra Herbert spent $70,000 traveling from Vancouver to Victoria since 2019.
“My son’s been very sick, he got sick here in Victoria, he’s been in and out of Victoria General, it’s been the worst year and a half of my life,” Chandra Herbert told reporters. “I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
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