Halfiax Councilors and the 2014 Bid Commission have finally come to an agreement ( well not all were in agreement, some are upset they wereh not better consulted) after an intense emergency meeting at City Hall here in Halifax and they have decided that they will not be pushing for the games. The 1 Billion dollar price tag is too expensive and too much of a tax burden on Haligonians. A news release is sheduled to air any time now.

The 2 levels of government say that the games are too rich for them and would cost at least 1.7 Billion Dollars to host. This is very devastating news for supporters of the games.

Barry Barnette and Mayor Peter Kelley will be announcing that the Federal Govt. and the Munc ipal Govt. will be pulling out and at 12:30 (atlantic standard time)..Fred MacGivillary the head of the games commission will make a formal announcement.

From the Chronical Herald Website, Thursday March 8, 2007

"The Nova Scotia government and Halifax scrapped their bid Thursday to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The province and the city pulled the plug on the project amid increasing criticism about the growing cost of the Games and the lack of transparency in the bid process.

Last month, some city councillors said they would withdraw their support if the final estimated price tag exceeded the initial estimate of $785 million.

In a release, the two levels of government said the bid budget, with inflation factored in, was close to $1.7 billion.

``The province of Nova Scotia has always said we would only support the Games if they are the right size for the province,'' Barry Barnet, the province's health promotion minister, said at a news conference.

He said the province was committed to put a maximum of $300 million into the cost of the Games. The federal government had said it would spend $400 million if Halifax won.

``With a budget projection of $1.7 billion, this was simply beyond our reach,'' said Barnet.

An independent analysis revealed a number of ``significant risks'' for the provincial and municipal governments.

The risks included:

_ Questionable revenue projections.

_ Higher than anticipated requirement for public funding _ estimated at 92 per cent.

_ Insufficient contingency funding, which could have left the province vulnerable to cost overruns.

Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly said the concerns raised by the report were too big to ignore.

"We were hopeful we would be in a position to support the Games but ... we cannot support going forward,'' Kelly said in a news release.

``We will not jeopardize our fiscal position.''

Halifax beat Hamilton, Ottawa and suburban Toronto's York Region in December 2005 to become Canada's candidate to host the Games.

The cost of preparing the bid has been pegged at $14.3 million, with the province and Ottawa each contributing $3.5 million, the city $3 million and the rest coming from corporate sponsorships and merchandising deals.

Premier Rodney MacDonald has said the federal government's contribution was based on inadequate information and, as a result, was too small.

MacDonald said Halifax, unlike some larger Canadian cities, had never hosted such a major sporting event and would need to build facilities to host the Games.

Still, he has said that while he supported the Games, the province was ``not willing to break the bank to host it.''

Secrecy surrounding the Halifax bid led to speculation that the final cost would be much higher than anticipated.

That prompted the head of the bid committee, CEO Scott Logan, to admit he had been too cautious about disclosing information.

Halifax was competing against Glasgow, Scotland, and Abuja, Nigeria, for the Olympic-style sports spectacle.

Final bids are supposed to be filed with the Commonwealth Games Federation in London, England, by May 9. "

The winner will be announced in November