2030 Winter Olympics…Provincial Government Rejects Vancouver’s Bid Citing “Financial Burden”!　If this situation continues, the Olympics will be held in Sapporo

About 70% of Sapporo Citizens Oppose Olympic Bid

Sixty-seven percent of Sapporo citizens are opposed to the city’s bid to host the 2030 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. On January 8, the Hokkaido Shimbun reported the results of a public opinion poll conducted by the newspaper on Sapporo citizens aged 18 and older from December 16 to 18 last year.

According to the survey, 33% of respondents were “in favor. The number of those opposed was twice that of those in favor. Furthermore, in a nationwide survey conducted on the same date, 61% of respondents were opposed to the project, higher than the 39% who were in favor.

The most common reason for opposition was “There are other more important measures such as snow removal, corona control, and welfare,” at 48%, followed by “The corruption and bid-rigging scandals surrounding the Tokyo Olympics have increased distrust of the Olympics,” at 23%. The same trend was seen in the all-province survey.

In October of last year, the City of Sapporo revised its budget to a maximum of 317 billion yen by adding 17 billion yen to the cost of hosting the Olympics in light of high prices and other factors. Of the 77 billion yen in facility construction costs, the City of Sapporo’s share was estimated to increase by 4 billion yen to 49 billion yen. According to a Doshin survey, 44% of Sapporo citizens and 47% of Hokkaido residents said that the cost of hosting the games was “too expensive.

The BC government is prioritizing health care, cost of living, housing, and public safety over the Olympics.

In addition to Sapporo, Salt Lake City (U.S.) and Vancouver (Canada) had also submitted bids for the 2030 Winter Olympics. However, in October of last year, the Province of British Columbia (BC), Vancouver’s home province, announced that it would not support the bid. The financial burden seems to be the reason.

The cost of hosting the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 was 1.6989 trillion yen, 20% more than the 1.4238 trillion yen announced by the organizing committee, according to a report by the Board of Audit.

The BC government’s decision not to support the bid, citing financial concerns, may be considered wise.

Will Vancouver withdraw from the bidding process? What is the opinion of the public? We interviewed Ms. Naomi Mishima, editor-in-chief of “Canada Today,” a Vancouver-based news site for the Japanese community.

The BC government announced its disapproval of the Olympic bid a few days after David Eby of the BC New Democrats was sworn in as the new premier. According to the provincial government’s minister in charge of sports, the decision was based on the provincial government’s priorities, including health care, cost of living, housing, and public safety, as well as the costs, risks, and potential benefits of hosting the games.

The BC New Democrats, the provincial government’s ruling party, is a left-of-center party that prioritizes the enhancement of social programs, and since BC is facing problems such as increasing homelessness and skyrocketing real estate prices, and since Premier Eby, the province’s former Attorney General, has always had a policy of giving money back to residents when he has it, it makes some sense that the reason for his disapproval is financial problems. So it is somewhat understandable that the reason for his disapproval is financial.

Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics. The bid is being led by four self-governing First Nations, including the City of Vancouver, the City of Whistler, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), and the Paralympic Committee (CPC), as well as the federal government’s Department of Sport.

The Canadian government has for years imposed a boarding school system on Indigenous peoples in the name of assimilation policies. In 2015, it was concluded that this amounted to cultural genocide, and since then, the government and indigenous peoples have continued to search for a way to reconcile. I believe that the First Nations who are leading the bid for the Olympics had the desire to establish their status and culture, and the provincial, city, and federal governments had the idea that by cooperating with the bid, reconciliation would also be promoted.

According to media reports in Canada, First Nations asked the provincial government to cover the estimated C$12 billion cost of hosting the Olympics. In response, the provincial government may have said it would not provide financial support.

In response to this announcement, the First Nations chief said at a press conference, ‘We wanted the BC government to have an opportunity to talk to us before making a final decision.

There are also reports that Vancouver’s bid to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, to be jointly hosted by Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, may be in the running if First Nations are able to convince the provincial government to reopen the bidding process. However, in the summer of 2021, the government made a complete turnaround and decided to bid for the event, and Vancouver was eventually chosen as the host city. Since such a change of policy is possible, it remains to be seen whether the decision to withdraw from the Olympics bid is final or not.

Mayor Akimoto of Sapporo City says, “I respect the will of the people,” but he is not talking about “withdrawing” from the project.

What about the will of the people of Vancouver?

In the January 2020 survey conducted by a private research firm, 60% of the respondents were in favor of the project, while 43% were in favor in October 2021 and 54% were in favor in June 2022. The November 2022 survey asked respondents whether they were in favor or opposed to the provincial government not supporting the bid, with 57% in favor of the provincial government’s policy and 29% opposed. Opposition to the Olympic bid was double the number of those in favor of the bid.

It is interesting to note that the majority of those in favor of the bid are over 55 years old. This age group is financially stable and remembers the fun of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Canada has hosted the Olympics three times before, in Montreal in the summer of 1976 and Calgary in 1988, and Canada failed to win a gold medal. The 2010 Vancouver Games, however, was a gold medal rush. The men’s ice hockey final between Canada and the U.S. on the last day of the games was so exciting that Canada won the gold medal after overtime.

Many citizens must have only good images of the 2010 Olympics, and if there is momentum, especially among the over-55 generation, for another round of that festivities, there may be a lot of support for the event.”

In 2018, Calgary held a referendum on whether or not to bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Is there a possibility that either the Province of BC or the City of Vancouver will hold a referendum on whether or not to bid for the 2030 Olympics in the future?

If it is decided to resume the bidding process, I think it will be done. If there is a lot of opposition, I think they will withdraw from the Olympics bid.

Last December, the City of Sapporo and the JOC announced that they would suspend large-scale momentum-building activities for the time being in the wake of the corruption and bid-rigging scandals surrounding the Tokyo Olympics and the postponement of the decision on the host city. Sapporo Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto, who had stated that he had no intention of holding a referendum, announced his intention to conduct a nationwide survey to determine whether people support or oppose the bid. However, although Mayor Akimoto has stated that he will “respect the will of the people” if opposition to the bid increases in the survey, he has not mentioned the word “withdrawal.

The Hokkaido Shimbun poll mentioned at the beginning of this article was conducted several days before this announcement, and 61% of Sapporo citizens and 57% of Hokkaido residents responded “Yes” to the question “Should a referendum be held on whether the bid should be approved or rejected? The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has stated that it will place importance on the approval rating of residents when selecting the host city. A referendum would be essential.

If the IOC says it attaches importance to the support of the local residents, then perhaps a referendum should be held.

I find it quite disconcerting that the national and local governments are trying to push through the bid at all costs without confirming the will of the people and citizens.”

According to a nationwide mail poll conducted by the Japan Public Opinion Research Institute from November to December last year, 57% of respondents were in favor of Sapporo’s bid to host the Olympics, while 42% were opposed. It is surprising that more than half of the public is in favor of the Olympics bid, even after learning about the corruption and bid-rigging scandal involving the Tokyo Olympics and the fact that the cost of hosting the Olympics has ballooned to 1.7 trillion yen.

It is not clear whether or not Mayor Akimoto expanded the scope of the survey to include the entire nation, based on the results of this survey. At any rate, Mayor Akimoto is planning to “emphasize the significance of hosting” the Winter Olympics in the Sapporo mayoral election in April, and is likely to conduct a nationwide survey this fall.

Depending on the results, Sapporo may be chosen as the host city for the 2030 Winter Olympics. …… At the same time, the survey will also question the Japanese people’s insight.

Naomi Mishima, editor-in-chief of “Canada-Japan Today,” came to Canada in 1997 and graduated from Simon Fraser University in 2002. She is the sports editor of the Vancouver Shimpo, a Vancouver community newspaper, and is covering the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and Paralympics.

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