Taxpayers won't be on the hook for an estimated $60 million in cost overruns on construction of the athletes' village for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, a City of Vancouver official said Monday. The city doesn't think Millennium Development Corp., responsible for the Southeast False Creek and Olympic Village project, will go bankrupt as a result of its reported financial troubles, said Michael Flanagan, the city's director of real estate services. "The responsibility clearly falls onto the developer," Flanagan said Monday. "It is their responsibility to deal with project overruns, and the city maintains that position."
There are reports the developer is facing cost overruns estimated at $60 million. Flanagan admitted that the project is not on budget, but the progress of construction is on time. City officials are watching the situation but are not concerned taxpayers will have to foot the cost overruns, he said. The Work Less Party, a 2010 Olympics watchdog group, said taxpayers could be hammered by a variety of extra costs. "There's actually a clause in the city's agreement with Millennium that says, if they are behind schedule, the city will provide the resources to hire more people and hire the equipment," spokesman Chris Shaw said."If anything goes wrong on this project, and Olympic projects always go over-budget, taxpayers are on the hook for it," he said.
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