Following a vote at a GIC meeting, members of the city's bid team, CSC and the CGF will make a presentation during which they will discuss the planned next steps and attempt to answer questions from councillors, as reported by In The Hammer.

Groups of Hamilton residents and businesses are also being invited to the next GIC meeting on August 10 to push the case for the city to host the multi-sport event in 2026.

The city in the province of Ontario was planning a bid for the 2030 Commonwealth Games, which would have been 100 years after it hosted the first edition of the event in 1930, under its previous guise of the British Empire Games.

The CGF then requested Hamilton switch its focus on bidding for the 2026 edition, prompting the team behind the Hamilton bid to rebrand themselves as the Hamilton 2026 Commonwealth Games Bid Corporation, with a spokesman for the corporation saying the coronavirus pandemic had also played a part in that decision.

However the financial investment required in hosting a major event in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic has concerned some members of Hamilton's GIC.

"Why is no one else competing for 2026?" asked Brad Clark, a councillor in Hamilton and member of the GIC.

"What do other cities know that we don't know?"

Clark went on to say he was not comfortable with committing to a bid which put a heavy burden on taxpayers.

It is not yet known how much taxpayers would be expected to contribute towards a proposed bid submitted by Hamilton.

Under the city's 2026 financial proposal it would cost an estimated CAD 1 billion (£591 million/$738 million/€652 million) to stage the Games, compared to the projected price tag of CAD 1.5 billion (£880 million/$1.10 billion/€979 million) to stage the event in 2030.

Earlier this month, the CGF sent a letter to the Hamilton 2026 Commonwealth Games Bid Corporation saying it had until September 2020 to secure support from Hamilton City Council and the provincial and federal Governments to develop a robust Candidate City Proposal.