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The province’s money is also contingent upon a majority of Calgarians voting in favour of hosting the Olympics in the Nov. 13 plebiscite.

But the requirement for increased transparency — which could involve making the bid corporation subject to provincial or federal freedom of information laws — won’t apply unless Calgary bids and is awarded the Games next June. Nor will it be applied retroactively to the work of the bid corporation to date.

Dean Piling/Postmedia

Mayor Naheed Nenshi has raised doubts that Calgary 2026 will actually be made subject to the province’s freedom of information and protection of privacy laws, even if the bid proceeds.

“(Finance Minister Joe Ceci) probably misspoke in that if he really wanted FOIP to apply, he would have to make a legislative change,” Nenshi said Monday. “But we have talked a lot about the importance of transparency in this work while maintaining commercially sensitive information that doesn’t actually drive up cost and there’s no problem with that.”

Nenshi said the bid corporation has already committed to making as much information public as possible, making the province’s request “redundant.”

“It’s super redundant. It basically is grandstanding. It’s already being done.”

No Calgary Olympics campaigner Erin Waite says regardless of the conditions imposed by the province, the perception of the city or the bid corporation withholding information has eroded public trust in the project. She said the province’s financial contribution also clearly signals a lack of enthusiasm.

“The amount of funding plus those conditions says there’s not a lot of enthusiasm for this project,” Waite said.

“It is support because support was asked for, so they followed through and provided support and good for them. But I do think the underlying message is there isn’t a lot of appetite and that’s just being responsible to today’s economy and the government’s financial position.”

mpotkins@postmedia.com

Twitter: @mpotkins