Mayor John Tory says he is listening to members of city council that have expressed concerns about the financial cost of going after the 2024 Summer Olympics but is not willing to abandon the idea and is instead recruiting private donors to help cover the cost of a bid.

Tory made the comment to reporters on Tuesday morning, one day after Budget Chair Gary Crawford told CP24 that he is “very nervous” about moving forward on an Olympic bid that is sure to “suck in a lot of money and energy.”

Crawford, who had previously said that he was confident that Toronto could go after and win the right to host the Olympics, was in fact just one of several budget committee members to express unease with the idea on Monday.

Coun. John Campbell told the CBC that a Toronto bid would be an “albatross” while Coun. James Pasternak suggested that the emergence of Los Angeles as a candidate city may leave Toronto on the outside looking in.

Tory has until Sept. 15 to submit a written expression of interest to the IOC, though council will not be given the opportunity to sign off on a bid until sometime down the road.

“I am very much influenced by the comments I receive, either personally or when I see them through the media, from members of city council. Look, the concerns about finance are on my mind too. That is why I am not just sort of blindly saying let’s just sign a letter and go ahead with this,” Tory said on Tuesday. “I want to be careful about this and make sure that whatever decision we make is a decision that is viable for the city, that is in the best interest of the city and that will provide a net benefit to the city.

Bid cost would be borne by private sector

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 but on Tuesday Tory said he believes changes to the rules governing the bidding process may have lowered that cost.

Tory then went on to say that he believes the cost, whatever it ends up being, will be “largely borne by the private sector.”

A report in the Los Angeles Times today indicated that officials in that city have already raised $35 million from the private sector to help pay for an Olympic bid.

“My questioning of people in the private sector is very much geared towards asking them if they would be participants. If people are enthusiastic about this then they have a great opportunity to invest in making a bid and making it successful,” Tory said, noting that he plans to meet a number of business leaders for dinner this week. “One of the questions I am asking of people is would you step up yourself and be a part of this?”

While Tory said he is hopeful about getting the private sector to foot the bill for an Olympic bid, the estimated $3.3 billion to $6.9 billion cost of actually hosting the games if successful would be another matter entirely.

To that end, Tory said he has already met with Premier Kathleen Wynne to gauge her support for a bid and plans to meet with the leaders of all three major federal parties.

“Their opinions are going to be very important to the viability of anything we would do,” Tory said.

Tory says he is forming infrastructure wish list

In the past Tory has suggested that going after international sporting events, such as the Olympics or the recent Pan American Games, allow a city to accelerate infrastructure projects that would otherwise take decades to get built.

Discussing a potential bid for the 2024 games, Tory said his personal wish list would include some sort of rapid transit line along the city’s waterfront and an athlete’s village that could be converted into social housing after the games are over.

Tory also said that he has asked a number of civil servants to provide him with a “list of things that could be put on an accelerated timeline” with an Olympic bid, regardless of whether that bid is successful or not.

“I will remind you that the Waterfront Corporation was formed as something that was meant to be supportive of an Olympic bid and the deal was that they (the other levels of government) put the money up and devoted it to the development of our waterfront regardless of whether we were successful in getting the Olympics or not,” he said. “We were not successful in getting the Olympics but the work on the waterfront went ahead anyway and that was hugely important to the people of Toronto.”

Former Olympian says “time is right” for bid

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 comments from IOC boss Thomas Bach indicating that Toronto would “make a good candidate” have helped to revive the debate.

On Tuesday Curt Hartnett, a former Olympic cyclist and Canada’s chef de mission for the Pan Am Games, told CP24 that he is convinced that the time is right to go after the Olympics.

“We have invested heavily in some world class, Olympic level sporting infrastructure and the time is now, the time is right,” Hartnett said. “A significant amount of the investment has already been made and there are new rules making the bid process cheaper, less cumbersome and more efficient.”

Hartnett, who won medals at the 1984, 1992 and 1996 games, told CP24 that he never saw the city come together like it did during the Pan American and Parapan Am Games and can’t help but think “what’s next.”

“We just finished hosting the biggest multi-sport event that we have ever hosted in Canada and I think it is time to move on to that next goal,” he said.

While Toronto council is not likely to debate a potential Olympic bid until after the deadline for expressions of interest has passed, Mississauga has added the matter to its agenda for Sept. 9.

During the recent Pan American Games, Mississauga played host to a number of venues, including wrestling and weightlifting.

So far Los Angeles, Budapest, Hamburg, Paris and Rome are bidding to host the 2024 games.

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