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“If you’re the minister of sport provincially or federally and you fumble the Olympics, you probably should be held accountable for that,” Nenshi said.

“If I’m the minister of sport and I’ve got the opportunity to get the Olympics and I fail in doing that, what else do I do? What is the most important thing I could possibly do?”

He was particularly angry about how the federal government’s financial contribution to the Games emerged, just days ahead of a council vote to kill the bid.

He said Ottawa could have convened cabinet and announced its financial commitment to the Games in the spring.

“For them to wait until two weeks before the plebiscite and not even have a cabinet discussion on it until then, as I understand it, I just don’t get it,” said Nenshi.

“If I had a city administrator who was in charge of such a big file and did not keep us appraised and missed deadline after deadline on it, I would question whether that person could handle their files.”

Later, while standing near provincial Transportation Minister Brian Mason to launch the MAX bus rapid transit network on Thursday, Nenshi doubled down on his earlier comments, suggesting the province didn’t do enough to explain why it was prepared to financially back the bid.

“If you’re going to make a $700-million commitment to something — that’s a big meaningful commitment — you should own it. And you should get out there and say ‘this is why we’re willing to put that money in and this is what’s important,’ ” Nenshi said. “And whether you’re the provincial or federal government, you shouldn’t leave your other partner to carry all the water on this.”