City staff are recommending that Toronto not pursue a bid to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games, saying that the bid alone would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars that the city doesn’t have.
The recommendation is contained in a report that was released Monday ahead of a meeting of the city’s Economic Development Committee and cites a number of “major risks and constraints” associated with a bid.
High up on that list of concerns is a lack of commitment by either the federal or provincial government to help out financially.
“Given the scale and complexity of the Games, a multi-party cost-sharing agreement between all three orders of government similar to that used during the 2015 Pan Am / Parapan Am Games would need to be in place to successfully host the 2022 Games in Toronto,” the report states.
To date, neither the provincial or federal governments have made a firm commitment.
The report estimates that the public sector costs to host the games would likely be in the hundreds of millions of dollars and that the city currently has no source to fund its contribution for such an undertaking.
In addition to the financial constraints, the report say the city would need to build a new athletes’ village, expand the capacity of existing track and field facilities and undertake significant community consultations.
While a bid would normally take one to two years to complete, the city would have to bring in third-party resources to assemble a bid by August on the expedited timeline, thereby incurring further unbudgeted costs according to the report.
The 2022 Games were originally set to be hosted by Durban, South Africa, but the Commonwealth Games Federation announced in March that Durban had lost the right to host the Games, citing serious financial and logistical concerns.
While Coun. James Pasternak has advocated a bid and said that much of the infrastructure would already be in place because of the 2015 Pan Am Games, Mayor John Tory has urged “great caution” on any possible bid.
