PBO says Canadian governments set to spend $1 billion to host World Cup

OTTAWA — Canada will spend just over $1 billion to host the World Cup this summer, the federal budget watchdog said Wednesday.

That sum includes money from all levels of government. The federal government’s contribution is expected to be $473 million.

The $1.066 billion total averages to $82 million per game for the 13 games that will be played in Toronto and Vancouver.

The parliamentary budget officer says that’s roughly in line with what previous host countries spent.

Canada is co-hosting this year’s tournament with the United States and Mexico. More than 100 matches are scheduled to take place across all three countries between June 11 and July 19.

In April, the federal government said it was allocating up to $145 million for security at the World Cup, with the money going toward resources for law enforcement agencies.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said at the time that welcoming World Cup crowds will require a massive co-ordinated effort, and that the international soccer tournament is one of the biggest and most complicated sporting events Canada has ever hosted.

Ottawa previously said it would allocate up to $320 million for hosting. The B.C. hosting cost of $578 million does not appear to be a new estimate — it’s the median in a costing range that was issued by the B.C. government last June, of $532 million to $624 million. The $380 million hosting cost for Toronto also had been previously announced.

Most of the government funding outlined in the PBO report will go toward hosting costs in the two cities. Vancouver will host seven games and Toronto will host six.

“As of April 2026, the most recent municipal and provincial budgets had indicated that, including federal grants, the City of Toronto intended to spend a total of $380 million on its city-level hosting costs while the Province of British Columbia intended to spend a total of $578 million,” the parliamentary budget officer said.

The PBO noted there may be changes to the expected costs for municipal and provincial governments because “updates to municipal and provincial spending plans may be announced in the coming weeks.”

B.C. Sports Minister Anne Kang told reporters Wednesday that the budget office cost estimate was based on old data and “does not take into account the positive offsetting of the revenues and recoveries.”

Kang said the province would provide updated numbers in what she called a “transparent report” in late May, but would not answer repeated questions about whether the estimates would be higher or lower than those released in 2025.

In March, a Leger poll suggested 74 per cent of Canadians support Canada hosting World Cup matches. But 65 per cent of those polled said they were concerned about the use of taxpayer funds and government spending.

“Although Canadians support hosting, they are not carefree about it. They continue to voice practical concerns about it. Their biggest concern is public spending,” Leger said in an online post.

Half of the respondents said they were concerned about protests or security disruptions.

Leger polled 1,639 Canadians online between March 13 and 16. The Canadian Research Insights Council, an industry organization that promotes polling standards, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2026.

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press