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New Olympic budget shows millions more to be spent on Whistler venues

Whistler Sliding Centre is $44.9 million over budget

Millions more dollars have been committed to Whistler for the 2010 Winter Olympic venues.

The new budgets for the Whistler Sliding Centre, the Whistler Nordic Centre, the alpine venue on Whistler, the athletes village, and athletes centre mean that the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Winter Games will spend an extra $76.3 million here.

The majority of the money, $44.9 million, is being spent on the Whistler Sliding Centre. It had an original 2002 budget of $55 million and will now cost $99.9 million.

Terry Wright, executive vice-president at VANOC, said the dramatic jump in cost is due to several factors including the complexity of the facility, competition for workers with other projects in Western Canada (such as the Alberta tar sands), and the increase in the price of concrete and steel.

He also admits that VANOC was way out in its 2002 bid estimate of how much it would cost to build the venue.

"…I think the estimate could have been flawed," he said during a press conference for VANOC’s first-ever quarterly financial report.

At the time the bid corporation could only go by the costs associated with sliding centres built historically.

"We didn’t have information on the Torino (host of the 2004 Winter Olympics) costs," he said.

"They weren’t available at that time because the track had not been constructed and it certainly would have modified our thinking somewhat on what our cost estimate should have been."

The Torino sliding track cost $110 million.

Wright, who along with all senior executives earns between $200,000 and $250,000 annually, said VANOC is determined not to spend more than the $99.9 million.

"…With 90 per cent (of the contracts) committed and really only some minor pieces to contract I would say we have a high degree of comfort within the $99.9 million and obviously we have sufficient contingency if we were slightly off on that," he said.

"Everyone is focused on that number. No one wants to see it cross that threshold of going above that 99.9 number."

The new budgets for the venues may face some revision when VANOC’s second business plan is complete by the end of this year.

For now it reflects the $580 million venues budget outlined in February. VANOC estimates that by venue completion the costs overall will be about 33 per cent higher than originally estimated. But, said Wright, that is significantly below the 60 per cent increase construction experts are forecasting costs will be at by Games time for other non-Olympic projects.

The quarterly report puts the new budget for the alpine venues on Whistler Mountain at $26.2 million, up from $23 million. The added costs come mostly from the purchase of technical equipment for snowmaking and the increase in cost of steel piping and welding labour — much in demand in Alberta.

The athletes village budget is now $37.5 million, up from $32.5 million, and the athletes centre goes from $13 million to $16 million. This will be covered by the provincial government’s verbal commitment to the RMOW to provide $9.5 million in extra funding to make the legacy affordable housing component a reality.

The Nordic Centre will now cost $115.7 million, up from $102 million. VANOC was able to save money at the venue by reducing the complexity of trails and cutting back on the number of times tracks had to cross streams.

The budget also includes a $36.1 million contingency. VANOC has yet to hear from the federal government about a request for an additional $55 million to cover the increased cost of venue construction. The province has been asked for the same amount.

VANOC CEO John Furlong said the decision to release quarterly reports from now on was a reflection of the organization’s commitment to keeping the public informed about the project.

"This first quarterly report is an important step in providing a greater degree of transparency, public accountability and awareness to the taxpayers of BC and Canada - particularly as it relates to our venue construction budget," he said.

"We have set the bar high to achieve excellence in management and the report speaks to not only what we are accomplishing but also how we are accomplishing it."

Since September 2003 VANOC has spent $78.8 million on operating expenses. That money comes from private revenue sources such as sponsors.

To date VANOC has spent $101.9 million on venue development. Overall the both levels of government have contributed a total of $122 million since VANOC got up and running. Most of that money to date has come from the provincial government. VANOC CFO Rex McLennan said that is not unusual as money from partners flows in at different times during the project.

The Province Newspaper

also reported this week that the federal government would spend $9 million on a weather monitoring system for the 2010 Games.

VANOC will contribute $3 million to the six year project, which will see 25 new weather stations, training and salaries for a team of 28 forecasters and the installation of an extra Doppler weather-radar system in the Sea-to-Sky corridor.