For the week of April 17, 2022:
Mayors of Vancouver and Whistler, along with leaders of four First Nations, are exploring a bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics.
Coun. Collen Hardwick (left) and Mayor Kennedy Stewart at the April 12 city council meeting (City of Vancouver)
Fewer cities can afford the Games, so the International Olympic Committee now prefers closed-door negotiations over bidding wars. It wants to pick the 2030 host next year, that’s why Coun. Colleen Hardwick proposed a plebiscite on the Oct. 15 civic election ballot. Let the people decide whether to host another multi-billion-dollar mega-event.
“So does this council support our citizens’ right to vote or not?” Hardwick asked on April 12. “Someone really needs to second this motion and to get it on the table. We have speakers signed up. Let them speak.”
To her surprise, none of her nine fellow councillors nor Mayor Kennedy Stewart put up a hand.
The public hasn’t been told how much a 2030 Games could cost. That could come before summer, when a feasibility study is expected. But the public doesn’t really know the cost of the 2010 Games, because organizing committee board minutes and financial records won’t be open to the public until October 2025.
Vancouver’s Olympic bid is alive, but is democracy dying?
On this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, here the entire segment of the April 12 city council meeting.
Also, commentary and Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.
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