Development for Calgary and Canmore
The Olympic Winter Games Calgary 1988 triggered new sporting, transport and urban infrastructure projects and accelerated existing ones.
The City of Calgary and the Organising Committee funded most of these developments jointly through the Olympic Capital Improvement Programme. This included the CAD 4.4 million upgrading of the Trans-Canada Highway between the Olympic Village and Canada Olympic Park, which improved access to the park.
Elsewhere, the public authorities took the staging of the Winter Games as an opportunity to extend the city’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) network to the north west of Calgary. The 5.8km line opened in 1987 and allowed public transport to serve all the city’s main Olympic venues. Calgary now has the highest number of LRT kilometres per capita in North America. This development has been crucial to the creation of a city centre with one of the largest concentrations of head offices in North America.
A total of CAD 225,000 was also invested in Calgary’s existing system of bicycle paths, extending it to Canada Olympic Park on the western outskirts of the city. The Olympic Capital Improvement Programme saw the upgrade of several of the city’s sports facilities as well, among them the Father David Bauer Olympic Arena, which hosted figure skating and ice hockey at the Games. Meanwhile, the Olympic Plaza was built to enhance the Olympic experience for locals and visitors alike. It remains a popular meeting place for Calgarians today.
Located 50 miles to the west of Calgary, the town of Canmore also saw significant development around the Nordic Centre, the venue for the biathlon and cross-country skiing events. A new hospital, fire station, swimming pool and curling rink were built, and the town became a popular residential area, proving especially attractive for commuters working in Calgary. Canmore’s population jumped from 4,419 in 1988 to 15,745 in 2019.