Taxpayer group hails Calgary Olympic whistleblower as city hall cracks down

Councillors remain tightlipped, but the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is all too happy to talk about a whistleblower leaking Olympic secrets at city hall. 

CBC News first reported the full details of a report outlining financial risks of a Calgary 2026 bid — a redacted version has since been released by the city. The report and documents obtained earlier show some costs associated with the Games were not part of budget projections. 

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Franco Terrazzano, Alberta director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, calls the whistleblower a hero and questions why there isn't more transparency in the lead up to a possible bid. 

"Why is more information not on the table? Why are we getting more information from our great reporters, our great news outlets than we're getting from our elected officials and our government," he said, standing out front of city hall on Thursday.

Investigation into leaks

Terrazzano says he wonders what other information isn't being shared with the public and the media. 

"It's important to remember that there were economic reports that came out earlier that were very skeptical of the economic benefits, that were even kept from city council," he said in reference to reports that were first revealed by the Globe and Mail. 

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The recent leaks have sparked an internal investigation at city hall to determine the source, and the law department insists some information must remain confidential. 

City solicitor Glenda Cole told council's Olympics assessment committee on Tuesday that she has released as much information as is legally possible.

"We are involved in very sensitive negotiations at a very critical moment on this project with other orders of government," said Cole.

"I hope you will trust me that when we went through that attachment, we released everything publicly that we could."

Councillors silenced

Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart said she couldn't comment on the financial risks report, but she respects the decision of the city's law department to keep such information confidential. At least for now.

"I'm trying my best to not politicize this whole exercise, right?" she said.

"I'm trying to be as objective as I can and I'm relying on the experts to give me their best advice on whether they think something can be released or not and ... the advice has been: it needs to be classified."

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Other councillors say they've been directed by the law department not to comment on the matter, even though the report has been publicly reported.

"I'm bound by the confidentiality and I was told and so was every other councillor and many staff, too, we cannot talk about whatever is in-camera," said longtime Olympic critic Coun. Sean Chu. 

Calgarians will vote in a plebiscite on whether or not to host the Games on Nov. 13. 

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With files from Scott Dippel and Helen Pike.