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Olympic budget questioned

The Games will cost Whistler $8.7 million, says 2010 office
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Under Wraps Buildings and fences were wrapped in Olympic colours in the Torino 200 Games. While inside the fence activities are the responsibility of Games organizers, Whistler is responsible for dressing up the rest of the resort - a cost included in the RMOW's $8.7 million Olympic budget.

By Clare Ogilvie and Claire Piech

Whistler may finally have its own Olympic spending budget but it is still far from clear what the total cost of the Games will be to the community.

The interpretive accounting that seems to always follow Olympic events was front and centre at this week’s council meeting following the release of the updated strategic plan for the Games by Whistler’s Olympic Games office.

The budget is pegged at $8.7 million but that does not include Games-time operations — service contracts that are still being negotiated. As well, many of the indirect costs associated with hosting such a large event are not included in the budget.

“We struggled with what should be included and what should not be included,” executive director for the 2010 Winter Games Jim Godfrey explained to an inquisitive council during Monday’s meeting.

“With the athletes’ village, for example, we did not look at that as an Olympic cost, but we included information on the athletes’ village in the (budget) document. We are trying to identify all those costs, but we weren’t saying those were a direct Olympic expense.”

His explanation came after several councillors objected to the way the budget was tallied. Indirect contributions are included in the revenue, which totals $87.7 million, but indirect costs are not incorporated into the $8.7 million expenditure.

Councillor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden said such accounting was like “comparing apples to oranges.”

“We are not doing this for $8.7 million,” stated Wilhelm-Morden. “We are doing it for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, more when you take into account capital costs that maybe are not directly related to the Olympics but are being hastened for the Olympics, like the landfill closure.

“Let’s not kid ourselves.”

Mayor Ken Melamed echoed her comments, saying: “If you are going to include the capital numbers in the ($87.7) million, you need to include them in the cash out.”

Wilhelm-Morden was the only councillor to vote against endorsing the draft budget.

Councillor Bob Lorriman pointed out that even without the Olympics, Whistler would still be spending money on the upgrade of the sewage treatment plant and closing the landfill.

“When you go back to apples and oranges, you can’t say we would be sitting here doing nothing, but yeah we did accelerate some of those expenditures,” he said.

Councillor Tim Wake also mentioned that the $8.7 million in expenditures is coming from the 2 per cent hotel tax and will not cost taxpayers money.

Wake added that his biggest challenge with the latest Olympic update was the lack of information on the operational planning.

“My struggle is we want to engage our community, we want to give them answers, and… they have not seen even the first blush of that operations plan,” said Wake.

“We are at risk of taking so long that by the time we release those plans, it will be too late for community feedback.”

Sharon Fugman, manager of the 2010 Games Services, assured Wake that operational planning is “well underway.”

It’s likely many of those operation details will be available in spring of 2009 once negotiations for those services are complete.

In a background briefing Godfrey said the decision to leave the operations expenses out was due to the delicate nature of the negotiations.

“In terms of our draft costs at the moment we have not identified Games-time operations costs and the reason we have not done that at this point is because we are going into sensitive negotiations with third parties for contributions to that,” he said.

The money will cover everything from banners and snow clearing to the Olympic Games Office.

Godfrey believes the budget is a good one.

“I’m pretty positive towards it,” he said during the briefing.

“I hope it adequately funds us at this point in time. I think it is important that we ensure that it does because the world is going to be watching and we want to make sure that we give a great impression.”

Brian Buchholz, a local firefighter, has repeatedly asked for local government to release the figures at council meetings.

“I am glad it has come out,” he said.

“At least people can make an intelligent decision on whether it is money well spent or not.

“I guess we won’t really know until after the Olympics whether this will be money well spent.”

The report titled Investing in the Dream shows that Whistler is receiving $87.7 million in cash investments because of the 2010 Games. That includes money for the athletes’ village, the development of Celebration Plaza — the site of the nightly concerts and medal award ceremonies, upgrades to the conference centre and an increased amount of the hotel tax revenue from the province.

All Olympic expenditures are coming out of the 2 per cent hotel tax Whistler receives.

The $8.7 million is broken down into several categories. Those include Whistler’s Olympic Games Office which will cost a total of $3.7 million over four years to 2010, the Look and Feel of the Games which will cost $500,000, the celebration sites are budgeted at $1 million, volunteers and staff engagement is set at $650,000, carbon management is budgeted at $60,000 and athlete recognition will cost $50,000.

Godfrey said the Look and Feel of the Games budget is being looked at again in light of lessons learned from the Beijing Summer Games.

On his return from Beijing Melamed said he was struck by the city’s efforts and the obvious expense of the pageantry.

On the Olympic Games office budget of close to a million dollars a year Godfrey said $573,000 of that was for salaries, $225,000 is for consultants’ fees and the rest was for operational expenses and a contingency.

However, the office has not spent its whole budget each year and any unspent funds are returned to the hotel tax fund.

“Although the budget is there we are not going to spend it just because it is there,” said Godfrey.

“But we would like to have the consulting provision and the contingency in case we need it.”

Godfrey could not say how many staff were currently working on projects associated with the Games as part of their daily jobs but he believes the number will continue to increase as the events draws closer.

Staff salaries are not accounted for in the just-released Games budget.

“I think as we move closer and closer to the Games the number of staff involved and the degree to which they are involved is going to increase significantly,” he said.

Vancouver set its spending at $20 million, a reflection of the magnitude of the event said Dave Rudberg, the city’s Olympic co-coordinator.

“There are differences in scale,” he said pointing to the celebration sites as an example. The Vancouver sites are budgeted for $5 million while Whistler is spending $1 million.

Vancouver’s Games office expenses, also close to $ 1 million a year, are not included in their official $20 million budget.

There are many costs for the Games in both cities which are not clear yet such as the contributions that will need to be made to security, fire, rescue, clean-up, increased transit services.

John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Games, greeted the news of the investment warmly.

“I think in many ways what the community is dong there is making a strong investment in the legacy that they hope the Games will bring,” he said.

“I have nothing but admiration for the work that has gone into this. If ever a community was a model of planning for something like this, Whistler is it.

“I believe that for a long time to come this will be seen day to day in the legacy they enjoy after the Games.”