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

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.”

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

by The Canadian Press

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

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