The 1988 Winter Olympic Cauldron in Calgary. CHRIS BOLIN / For The Globe and Mail

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, dressed in a grey suit with a purple tie and purple checked shirt, stood behind a podium in a small room this week to make what he called a "milestone" announcement.



The 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic torch sat in a small display case on the floor in the corner to his left. On his right, a framed Team Canada jacket from Sochi 2014 – autographed by Olympic bobsleigh gold medalists Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse – sat on an easel.

Mr. Nenshi, back from his vacation at the Rio 2016 Olympics, unveiled the committee that's been convened to study whether Calgary should bid on the 2026 Winter Olympics.

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Related: A potential Olympic bid raises complicated questions for Calgary

"I am so excited about this group," Mr. Nenshi said, emphasizing the word "so."

"It is an extraordinary group of people, an extraordinary group of citizens representing the breadth and the diversity of our community in a really exceptional way."

But whether the group of Olympic and Paralympic athletes, business folk and arts boosters can effectively evaluate whether Calgary should spend tens of millions of dollars just to bid on the mega-event is questionable. Experts argue that the committee, chaired by former Calgary police chief Rick Hanson, has significant gaps and a shortage of sober voices at the table – flaws that could hurt a potential bid.

Seven of the committee's 17 voting members have direct links to Olympics and Paralympics, ranging from athletes to fundraisers; two sit on a board that recommended Calgary strike this committee; another has family ties to a privately owned group that wants Calgary to chip in millions for a new stadium and fieldhouse, which would likely be a central part of any bid.

"Do you think a bunch of Olympians are going to go into this thing with complete objectivity?" Tsur Somerville, a professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, asked. "The notion that it is going to be objective is somewhat hard to take seriously."

Olympic fever is contagious and even the members appointed because of their business chops can be infected. Mega-events, Prof. Somerville noted, are often justified by perceived economic benefits – jobs, perhaps affordable housing and the expectation that governments will fund infrastructure goodies.

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Former Calgary police chief Rick Hanson will head the city's exploration committee on a potential bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics Bill Graveland/The Canadian Press Meet the committee Rick Hanson: Chair. He served as Calgary’s police chief between 2007 and 2015. Mr. Hanson’s profile was elevated during the floods in 2013 when he and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi were constantly at each other’s side. “Rick was, frankly, the very first one on our list [to chair the committee],” Mr. Nenshi said as the two shared a podium Monday. “I think he might have been the only one on our list.” Doug Mitchell: Honorary chair, although he has no vote. Mr. Mitchell is a member of the Canadian Olympic Foundation’s board and is married to Lois Mitchell, Alberta’s Lieutenant-Governor. The University of British Columbia in 2009 named its sports centre the “Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.” The facility hosted hockey and sledge hockey during the Vancouver 2010 games. He chairs the Canadian Athletic Foundation board of trustees, the group that administers a university athletic awards program he founded. Mr. Mitchell, one of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP’s national co-chairs, owns part of the Calgary Stampeders. The proposed controversial CalgaryNEXT sporting complex includes a new home for the football team and the folks behind the project want taxpayers to chip in. CalgaryNEXT’s proposed facilities will need to be considered as the committee mulls a bid. Mr. Mitchell is the chairman of the Calgary Sport Tourism Authority (CSTA), which advised the city to form this Olympic bid exploration committee. Dale Henwood: Assistant coach of the men’s hockey team for the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary. He is a member of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and has been head of the Canadian Sport Institute since 1994. The organization’s vision, according to its website, is to be “a key contributor to Canada’s world-leading Olympic and Paralympic podium performances.” Mr. Henwood is on the CSTA’s board. Wilton Littlechild: A member of Parliament between 1988 and 1993. The decorated international athlete served as an ambassador and torch-bearer in the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. Mr. Littlechild was one of the founders of the North American Indigenous Games. A lawyer, he served on Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Patrick Jarvis: Raced in the 1992 Paralympic Summer Games in Barcelona. He was Canada’s chef de mission for the 1998 Paralympic Winter Games in Nagano. He is a former Canadian Olympic Committee member, former president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee and a board member with the International Paralympic Committee. Mr. Jarvis served on Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation’s board, the 2010’s organizing committee’s board, and consulted on Halifax’s 2014 Commonwealth Games bid. He is the executive director of Canada Snowboard. Beckie Scott: Three-time winter Olympian and the first North American woman to win an Olympic medal in cross-country skiing. She has served on the Canadian Olympic Committee, the International Olympic Committee and was on the board of Vancouver 2010’s organizing committee. Catriona Le May Doan: Carried the Canadian flag during the opening ceremonies at her fourth Olympic Games – the 2002 festivities in Salt Lake City. She also served on Vancouver 2010’s organizing committee board and is vice-chair of the Canadian Sport Institute. Gene Edworthy: Competed for Canada in luge in the 1980s as well as in 10 Canadian luge championships. A former Canadian Olympic Committee board member, the Calgary optometrist once served as WinSport’s chairman and the head of Canada’s luge organization. Chris Lee: Managing partner for Deloitte on the Prairies. He is a co-chair for Gold Medal Plates, an organization that has raised $11-million for the Canadian Olympic Foundation. Mr. Lee is also on the steering committee for the Global Business Forum, an annual conference that Doug Mitchell established and co-chairs. Sue Riddell Rose: Prominent Calgary philanthropist and energy executive, running an oil company her billionaire father Clay Riddell created and still chairs. Her father owns part of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp., the private partnership asking for taxpayer dollars to help build CalgaryNEXT, a new downtown stadium and fieldhouse. CSEC own the Calgary Flames and the majority of the Calgary Stampeders). Ms. Riddell Rose’s brother Jim Riddell is on WinSport’s board of directors. WinSport owns Canada Olympic Park, the Canmore Nordic Centre, and provides two-thirds of the Olympic Oval’s budget. WinSport would be a key part of an Olympic bid, but some of its facilities would have to be refurbished or replaced. Scott Thon: Chief executive of utility company AltaLink, of which Mr. Mitchell is a director. Mr. Thon is also a trustee for Mr. Mitchell’s Canadian Athletic Foundation. Karen Ball: An experienced fundraiser in Calgary’s arts community. Ms. Ball worked as the executive director for Calgary 2012, a non-profit organization promoting the city as the Culture Capital of Canada that year. Doug and Lois Mitchell acted as co-chairs for Calgary 2012. Rod McKay:The accountant is Tourism Calgary’s chairman. He is also a director at Fidelity Capital Structure Corp., sat on the Alberta Securities Commission between 2007 and 2013, and was a partner at KPMG between 1977 and 2006. Mr. McKay is on the CSTA’s board. Maureen Killoran: Managing partner for Osler LLP’s Calgary office. The litigator focuses on major energy projects. She is recognized as a top lawyer and has taught at the University of Calgary’s law school. Irfhan Rawji: Principal at newly formed Totem Capital Corp., a private investment firm. Laurie Stretch: General manager for Calgary for Edelman, a communications firm. Sheila McIntosh: Worked at Cenovus Energy (and its predecessor company Encana) for 30 years, most recently as Cenovus’s executive vice-president in charge of environment and corporate affairs. Patti Pon: Calgary Arts Development’s chief executive, in charge of distributing millions of dollars to arts organizations. She is a director at the Calgary Foundation, which connects donors and community organizations in the city. Kurt Hanson: A member of the CSTA and Calgary’s general manager of community services. No relation to Rick Hanson, he is a non-voting member of the committee. Chima Nkemdirim: Mayor Nenshi’s right-hand-man and a non-voting member of the committee. – Carrie Tait

But Prof. Somerville cautioned: "The Olympics is a party and it is a lot of fun. And there's no reason cities shouldn't throw parties," he said. "But just understand that's what it is. It is not this economic stimulus. It is not this economic driver."

Mr. Hanson, however, argued the group will not let excitement turn them into yes-men.

"That's just not the way that I work and it is not the way that anybody on that committee wants to work," he told reporters Monday. "The worst thing we can do if somebody wants the Olympics is to colour the information, because it will quickly become apparent that you're doing that."

The committee has $5-million to spend to explore the possibility of a bid. It can prove valuable if it hands in a realistic accounting of the city's infrastructure – both the quality of existing facilities and the cost of necessary upgrades and new projects, according to expert outsiders.

Neither the provincial government nor the federal government have representatives at the table.

"You need to have all orders of government all in" from the start, said Sevaun Palvetzian, the chief executive at Toronto's CivicAction and one of the authors of a report advising that city on what it takes to host global events.

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"If you don't have every order in government somehow authentically engaged, from our research it seems very hard to expect great results from the process," she said.

Even if the committee finds enthusiasm in Edmonton and Ottawa, launching a bid without formal financial agreements is risky, experts argue, and the timeline is tight.

The Olympic bid exploration committee must present a draft of its 2026 plan by the end of December; the International Olympic Committee starts consulting candidate cities next February; presentations to the Canadian Olympic Committee kick off in April; and Calgary's exploration committee must submit its final report in July, 2017. The city, Alberta, Canada and the COC will then have a month to make a decision on whether to bid. The final deadline for "notice of intent to bid" comes on Sept. 15, 2017.

Bidding alone costs tens of millions of dollars.

A Calgary bid would not get special treatment from the provincial government, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Monday.

"We will wait to see what kinds of proposals come forward to us from the committee and we'll look at them like we'd look at any kind of proposal," she said, speaking from New York. The provincial government is investing $34.8-billion in new public works by the end of the decade, with revamped schools and wider roads being given a priority. Due to budgetary constraints as the province struggles through recession and a deep deficit, spending on Olympic infrastructure would have to prove its worth, she added.

Alberta's intraprovincial rivalry could also make preliminary funding promises difficult. Edmonton withdrew its bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games last year, but hosting the 2026 edition remains a possibility. Meanwhile, Quebec City earlier this year decided not to bid on the 2026 Winter Olympics, arguing Switzerland's desire to host has an unfair advantage. Two members of the group that will evaluate bids are Swiss.

A ski jump at Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park, one of the sites of the 1988 Winter Olympics. CHRIS BOLIN / For The Globe and Mail

Rob VanWynsberghe, a professor in the University of British Columbia's department of Educational Studies and a sustainability expert who has studied the Olympics, argues Calgary's 2026 committee hurt itself by excluding representatives from neighbourhoods which will be affected by infrastructure developments and swarms of tourists. People living in areas where new sporting facilities or the Olympic village, for example, could be constructed should be folded into the process as early as possible. Opposition – and support – flourish in these types of neighbourhoods.

"Those people in those communities should be brought to the table," he said. "To already begin to not look like they are going to be representative is a problem."

Indeed, a proposed sporting complex that would certainly be part of the Olympics and Paralympics is already controversial in Calgary. The private group that controls the Calgary Flames and the Calgary Stampeders wants taxpayers to pitch in millions to build its so-called CalgaryNEXT project. It is centred on a new stadium and fieldhouse where their two teams would play. The group estimates the project would cost $890-million and it wants the city to chip in $200-million. The ownership group's proposal also includes a $240-million community revitalization levy. City officials, however, believe CalgaryNEXT would ring in at $1.8-billion, with taxpayers coughing up as much as $1.4-billion. Mayor Nenshi has scoffed at the current proposal.

Sue Riddell Rose, a respected oil executive, is on the 2026 Olympic bid exploration committee. Her father is one of the billionaire owners asking the city to pay for part of CalgaryNEXT.

Mr. Nenshi on Monday dismissed questions about the family connection. There was "a little bit of debate that we certainly had, though my understanding is that she herself does not have an ownership and we don't want to reject anyone because of various family ties."

He added: "There was a real desire to have a senior leader from the energy sector on this who is also deeply committed to the community as a whole, and her name is certainly the first one that came up."

Ms. Riddell Rose was unavailable for comment.

With a report from Justin Giovannetti in Edmonton

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said evaluation committee member Rod McKay was a director of Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. He is on the Calgary Sport Tourism Authority board.