City of Vancouver spent $554 million on 2010 Olympics and Paralympics

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      The City of Vancouver says it spent an estimated $554.3 million to host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

      According to a staff report posted today (April 15) on its Web site, the city incurred $524 million in capital costs and $30.3 million in operational costs related to the Games.

      The total cost of Vancouver’s “direct support” for the Games was actually $729.2 million, with $174.9 million coming from the provincial and federal governments, and Olympic sponsors.

      The report says the capital costs paid by the city included $299.8 million for civic facilities at the Olympic Village, $120.9 million for non-competition infrastructure, $73.8 million for Olympic competition venues, $26.2 million for the Neighbourhood Energy Utility district-heating system at Southeast False Creek, and $3.2 million for preparing civic facilities.

      The operational costs included $22.5 million for Olympic legacy and other initiatives, $5.9 million for dedicated Olympic operations, and $1.9 million for operational support during the Games.

      “The capital funding has been dedicated to build new infrastructure and civic facilities or to upgrade our existing capital assets, providing a sustainable legacy for the citizens of Vancouver,” city manager Penny Ballem states in the report. “As well, within the programs funded through the Olympic Legacy Reserve, a number of additional legacies remain such as public art, decorative street lighting, and our digitized Olympic archives.”

      Not included in the $554.3-million figure is the city’s $969-million loan to Millennium Development Corporation, the developer of the Olympic Village.

      The total figure also omits the $21.3 million spent by the city over five years on planning for the Olympics—mostly related to transportation and security. According to the report, “most of the planning effort was provided through the redeployed of staff and was not an incremental cost to the City”. It says the net cost to the city for Olympic planning was about $14.2 million, because the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit has reimbursed it for the “majority” of planning costs related to security.

      In addition, at an estimated cost of $2.5 million, 485 employees worked as part of the Host City Team during the Olympics, with duties related to the torch relays, live sites, and other programs.

      City council is scheduled to receive the report, dated March 31, at its meeting on Tuesday (April 20).

      The report calls itself the “first to compile the total costs associated with the 2010 Winter Games”.

      You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.

      Comments

      14 Comments

      sell the politicians before we sell our infrastructure

      Apr 15, 2010 at 4:17pm

      I wish we could afford teachers.

      V

      Apr 15, 2010 at 7:43pm

      So, was it all worth it?

      cooley

      Apr 15, 2010 at 8:01pm

      well that was fun, what's next weekend?

      Strategis

      Apr 16, 2010 at 2:53am

      Watching sports and drinking are so much fun, aren't they? No expense is too high. Everything else is expendable, like housing, health, arts, education, legal aid, drug rehabilitation, industry, and the environment.

      ds

      Apr 16, 2010 at 7:53am

      do you think they'll get reelected after the next hike in taxes comes out to pay for this? haha

      Burnaby Joe

      Apr 16, 2010 at 10:15am

      It's an interesting way of calculating the costs - lump everythign together and call it Olympic expenses. But that includes the building of roads, community centres, libraries, etc. So why were they labelled as Olympic expenses by the City? So that they could receive top-up funding from other levels of Government. Well done, and lucky Vancouver for getting these extra public facilities while actually not spending anything extra. Now it's time for the whiners to go home.

      BC Mom

      Apr 16, 2010 at 10:17am

      I think it was worth it.

      Max

      Apr 16, 2010 at 2:37pm

      My kid's kids will be paying off this huge subsidy to the real estate, the tourism and hotel industries. This had little to do with sports (1/10 of 1% of the population engages in any of these sports, other than maybe hockey). It is simply capitalism: workers pay taxes to support corporate profits. They call it 'free enterprise'! Free for the corporations who laugh all the way to the bank.

      STEVE C

      Apr 16, 2010 at 2:46pm

      Yes was worth it. Homeless people, get jobs. Stop relying on my tax dollars to support your pathetic abusive addictive lives.

      Max

      Apr 16, 2010 at 4:00pm

      STEVE C would prefer his tax dollars go into the pockets of the wealthiest people in society. STEVE C is a capitalist, you see.