by OpenMike » Sat Jan 17, 2009 12:59 pm
would a Public Private Partnership have been better than this?:
Olympic's costs may yet haunt Liberals
Keith Baldrey, Special To North Shore News
Published: Friday, January 16, 2009
Once upon a time, a long time ago, the 2010 Olympic Games were supposed to cost a relatively measly sum of $600 million.
That seemed almost like chump change, considering how much big projects cost.
But now, as the Games draw ever nearer, the costs keep piling up. In fact, the final figure could exceed a whopping $3 billion.
How could this be?
Well, for starters, that $600 million covers only the costs of the venues, those arenas and ski hills and such where the Games will actually occur. But as is so clear with these things, the Olympics are much bigger -- and much more expensive -- than simply staging some hockey games and downhill races.
The B.C. government, for example, has created all sorts of spending programs that would not have been created had it not been for the Games. Things like the Olympic Secretariat and Own the Podium cost big money, as do various legacy programs.
In fact, those related programs will cost well more than $100 million. But that's probably the smallest line item on an expanding Olympic budget.
Potentially the biggest cost will be for security. Neither the provincial government nor the federal government wants to provide many details on this front, but there appears to be acknowledgement from governments and the RCMP that security costs will come down somewhere between $400 million and $1 billion (the original estimate from the province was just $175 million).
And B.C.'s auditor general has argued forcefully that another big spending project should be included when Olympic spending is tallied up. He feels the upgrade to the Sea-to-Sky Highway is directly tied to the Olympics, since its construction schedule was fast-tracked to ensure the work was done before the Games started.
That project adds another $775 million to the running total. As well, Crown corporations are contributing $90 million in sponsorship funding -- money that comes off their bottom lines, with a net impact on taxpayers.
Finally, there is the unresolved problem of the massively expensive Olympic Village project in Vancouver. Pegged at $875 million, the project's financing is threatened by the deteriorating economy and a wobbly Wall Street connection.
Geo Custer - "There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the 7th Cavalry"