A Vancouver Olympics, again? Maybe – but with four First Nations leading the pitch, it’s no 2010 reprise

VICTORIA — As athletes touch down in Beijing for a 2022 Winter Olympics, a plan is underway to pitch taking the 2030 Games back to Canada – but with First Nations instead of a city taking the hosting role for the first time.

Líl̓wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations, and the municipalities of Vancouver and Whistler announced an agreement Tuesday with the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic committees to explore the feasibility of hosting the 2030 Winter Games.

The plan would bring the Games back to British Columbia only 20 years after the area last hosted them – but with four First Nations leading the pitch planning, it aims not to be a simple 2010 reprise.

One chief said it was the Líl̓wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh that promoted the idea of ​​the 2030 bid, gaining the support of the Vancouver and Whistler municipalities in the process.

“In 2010, we walked behind them,” said Musqueam Chief Wayne Sparrow. “And this time, they say they’re going to walk behind us.”

The plan is currently in the early stages, but the two municipalities and four nations have signed a memorandum to work together on a pitch, and started working with the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic committees in studying the feasibility.

A lot still needs to happen before the pitch is complete – including consultations with municipalities across the Lower Mainland, which, according to recent polling, were split on the idea of hosting the mega-event again.

Even with a completed bid submitted to the International Olympic Committee, another city could obviously be chosen instead, with the northern Japanese city of Sapporo considered one of the leading contenders.

In 2018, the Calgarians voted “no” to a plan to pitch hosting the 2026 Olympic Games, which would have cost $ 3 billion. The Vancouver 2010 Olympics came with a $ 7-billion price tag.

Another Olympic Games hosted in the Lower Mainland of BC would have a lower price tag, according to the coalition building the pitch, because infrastructure from the 2010 Games could be reused.

Robert VanWynsberghe, the University of British Columbia education professor who led a study on the impact of the 2010 Games, said having a pitch led by First Nations may be an opportunity to broaden the focus of the event.

With First Nations leading the charge, he said, the event could explore new ways to accomplish reconciliation goals across the country – something that could garner more national buy-in than did the 2010 Games.

“I think we’re in a good position now to do something that really speaks to our priorities (as a country),” he said. “That might be a wonderful way to bring a Canadian perspective on this.”

“Maybe you need to do more that’s national (in scope) than red mittens,” he said.

That national focus could come in the form of Indigenous leadership and reconciliation-related projects, such as building housing for First Nations communities as part of the plan for the Olympic Games, VanWynsberghe said.

“The last (Games), there appeared to be a lot of community-based legacies, but the athletes’ village never produced the social housing that was promised,” he said. “And I think that was a swing and a miss.”

VanWynsberghe added that a plebiscite held ahead of the 2010 bid included only the city of Vancouver and not the First Nations or surrounding cities and towns, something he said would almost surely have to change this time around.

Sparrow said it’s too early to say what kind of infrastructure benefits might come to Musqueam as a result of another Olympic bid, but housing is something he’s thought about. And he wants to see First Nations from across the country benefit, too.

“It would be really exciting to think what we can do not just as the four host nations but also with BC and Canada to acknowledge the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” he said. “It’s not just the four host nations’ Games, it would be Canada’s Games.”

The announcement comes at a time when many Canadians are feeling sour about the Olympic Games this year. According to a poll released Tuesday – based on an online survey of 1,000 Canadian adults with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20 – 59 per cent of Canadians think Canada should boycott the Olympics this year, and half say they will ignore the event altogether.

The 2022 Beijing Games will begin Feb. 4. After that, it’ll be Paris in 2024, Milan-Cortina, Italy, in 2026, Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane, Australia in 2032

With a file from The Canadian Press.