Finance miniser: Added security costs bumped Olympics price tag

Damian Inwood, The Province July 9, 2010 11:26 AM

B.C.’s spending on the 2010 Olympics skyrocketed from Premier Gordon Campbell’s promised $600 million to $925 million, says a finance ministry report released Friday. An extra $165 million was spent on security and a further $160 million was doled out “for activities designed to maximize the benefits of being the host province for the Winter Games. But Finance Minister Colin Hansen defended the government from accusations that it misled taxpayers on the true cost of the Games. “When I hear people say that we have always promised that the Games would be funded from a $600-million envelope, that is not actually what we said,” said Hansen. “What we said (about) that initial $600-million envelope was that it was to cover a specific list of items.” He said the items were those committed at the time of the bid to the International Olympic Committee. “We did go over because of the added security costs by an additional amount that took us up to the $765-million total,” he added. “We have always been clear that there are other things that we would do to leverage the Games.”

The spending total doesn’t include the $600-million spent on upgrading the Sea-to-Sky Highway. The report says that while the government’s view is that the highway upgrades “are not direct provincial costs of the 2010 Games, the province does recognize that the highway upgrades were critical for the successful delivery of the Games.” The report also doesn’t include the $2 billion Canada Line from downtown Vancouver to Richmond and the Vancouver International Airport or the $883 million for the new Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Hansen accused detractors of “comparing apples and oranges” but said that individuals are free to total up the Olympic costs however they wish. According to the report, the original $600 million budget included $290 million, as B.C.’s share in venue construction. It also included a $55-million venue-operations endowment fund, $36.1 million on First Nations and municipal legacies, $25 million to the Olympic organizing committeee’s contingency reserve, $19.6 million for Games live sites and $16.6 million for “2010 Games wind-up obligations.” On top of the initial security commitment of $87.5 million, another $6 million went toward fire and public safety. The additional $165 million needed to bolster the Games $900-million security budget will be paid over three years, as an increased B.C. share of the federal/provincial infrastructure costs program. Of the extra $160 million to “maximize benefits” the biggest item was $47.6 million to pay for the Olympic and Paralympic Games secretariat. Other costs included $38 million for tourism promotion, including buying $12 million in unsold billboard space from the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Organizing Committee. As well, $15.4 million was spent on the Robson Square celebration site and $14.4 million on “Games-time celebrations.”