A group of local officials want Québec City to host the 2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games ©Quebec 2030

Québec City could enter the race to host the 2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games after a group of local business people unveiled plans to bring the event to the province.

The Québec 2030 Committee, comprised of 12 directors, wants to co-host the Games with another Canadian city.

Its preliminary plans include a budget of CAD5 billion (£2.9 billion/$4 billion/€3.3 billion), based on estimates from Calgary's failed bid to stage the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

The Committee, which claims to have considerable financial backing from local partners, has also revealed a logo, website and social media accounts.

It hopes to enter discussions with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in early 2022.

Québec City has not bid internationally for the Games since losing out to Salt Lake City in 2002, while it was also overlooked in favour of eventual hosts Vancouver for the Canadian nomination for 2010.

The group behind the possible candidature is hoping to take advantage of the IOC's changes to the bidding procedure, which allow for multi-city and regional bids.

Québec City is lacking suitable venues for a number of sports, including downhill skiing and the sliding disciplines of bobsleigh, skeleton and luge.

"We had discussions with other Canadian cities, without naming them, to clearly demonstrate the interest of Québec," said committee founder and businessman Mark Charest.

"We want to respect one of the clauses of the reforms, namely to hold the Olympic Games jointly with another city in Canada."

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) is only able to nominate one candidate to open talks with the IOC's Future Winter Host Commission, which identifies and recommends venues for the Games.

Vancouver appears to be the preferred option for the COC at this stage but the organisation has shelved any discussions on a bid for 2030 until after the rearranged Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

John Furlong, the President and chief executive of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympics, said this week that the Games would take place at existing venues and require only private funding if the Canadian city was to host the 2030 event.

Sapporo in Japan, the frontrunner to stage the 2030 Games before the COVID-19 pandemic pushed Tokyo 2020 back to this year, Salt Lake City in the United States, and Pyrenees-Barcelona in Spain are the other cities in talks with the IOC to host a future Winter Olympics.