Bob Mackin
With just 245 days until kickoff, the parent ministry of the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency is refusing to disclose its budget for FIFA World Cup 26.
FIFA’s Vancouver and Toronto World Cup 26 logos (FIFA)
Toronto hosts the first of its six matches on June 11, 2026, opening day of the 16-city, North American tournament. Two days later, Vancouver hosts the first of its seven. Both cities are also sites of fan festival viewing parties through the July 19 final.
“Public Safety Canada, the CBSA and the RCMP are relying on existing resources to deliver essential federal services,” said a statement from spokesperson Louis-Carl Brissette Lesage. “Planning for safety and security operations of the event is ongoing; final costs will be made public post FIFA 2026.”
The Department of Canadian Heritage, which includes Sport Canada, is sticking to the $220 million figure it announced last year: $116 million for Vancouver and $104 million for Toronto. The money is earmarked for local operating and capital costs, “as well as providing essential services within federal jurisdiction, such as border, immigration, security, and health.”
Neither Public Safety Canada nor Canadian Heritage said whether additional funding is on the way in the Carney Liberal government’s Nov. 4 federal budget.
Rewind to 2010
FIFA 26, with Mexico and the United States, is Vancouver’s biggest global mega event since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Vancouver’s 2003 Olympic bid book estimated security at $175 million. It ended up costing around $900 million.
Dave Jones, the co-lead for security with the Vancouver city hall’s FIFA 26 secretariat, said in a 2024 affidavit that World Cup security risks include terrorism, hacking, protest blockades, attack drones and vehicle ramming — one of which happened last April in Vancouver. Eleven people were killed at a Filipino cultural festival.
Big price tag
In April 2024, the B.C. NDP government estimated the FIFA 26 cost would range from $483 million to $581 million.
Last June, the estimate rose to $532 million-$624 million and the government said it expected more federal help.
“The Province and its partners anticipate that the federal government will be a full partner in helping to manage and fund extraordinary risks that materialize for the FIFA World Cup 26 event, such as potential global economic downturns, natural disasters like fires and floods and increasing threat levels from rising geopolitical tensions,” said the spending update.
Teamwork?
Before Vancouver’s Olympic bid won in 2003, governments at all levels signed an agreement to define their roles, responsibilities and support for the project.
One does not exist for FIFA 26.
According to B.C.’s Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, “a multiparty agreement has not yet been finalized” between Ottawa and the host provinces and cities.
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