The 2010 Integrated Security Unit includes Mounties from several jurisdictions and municipal police forces. (Getty Images)
No Line in Budget for 2010 Security
No new funds for Olympic security were announced in the Feb. 19 British Columbia budget. But, security was mentioned as a potential benefactor of the $79 million rainy-day fund.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police – Canada's federal officers – are concerned that the $175 million 2010 security budget is far too low, according to internal documents obtained by Canadian media last year. The security price tag is under review by provincial and federal governments. The new federal budget is coming Feb. 26.
The latest public disclosure documents released by the Canadian Forces show a $19.3 million budget for the Canadian Navy to protect the waterfront Vancouver Olympic Village.
The security budget is likely to be on the agenda during the IOC Coordination Commission visit to Vancouver next week.
2010 TV Execs Meeting in Vancouver
International Olympic Committee-owned Olympic Broadcast Services Vancouver is holding a meeting through Feb. 22 with more than 100 representatives of 35 TV and radio rights-holding networks to discuss production costs and logistics.
Vancouver 2010 will be the first all-HD TV Winter Olympics from the source.
"There’s plenty of infrastructure for us to be able to acquire that equipment to be able to achieve it," said OBSV chief operating officer Nancy Lee.
Lee, the former executive producer of CBC Sports, is based at film and TV lot North Shore Studios. OBSV will move to the international broadcast centre at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre in January 2010.
NBC, the largest broadcaster, paid $2.2 billion for U.S. rights to Vancouver 2010 and London 2012. The CTV/Rogers consortium outbid CBC with a $153 million offer for the Canadian deal.
The VANOC operations budget shows almost $580 million in broadcast and sponsorship-related payments from the IOC. But $178 million is being deducted to operate OBSV, the Games’ host broadcaster.
B.C. Place No More?
Meanwhile, ceremonies venue B.C. Place Stadium is getting a new roof, and maybe a new name.
"B.C. Place will undertake a major renovation plan, including a roof replacement, to keep it viable for at least the next 20 years," according to a three-year plan released Feb. 19 by the taxpayer-owned B.C. Pavilion Corp.
Naming rights may be sold, but IOC rules forbid Games-time advertising. The service plan said work is expected to begin during the next fiscal year, which begins April 1. It also forecasts using $41.65 million for capital projects through 2011.
Coins Collected
The Royal Canadian Mint is tallying how many 25-cent Olympic coins were lost in a Feb. 7 truck crash on the Trans-Canada Highway near the British Columbia interior city Kamloops.
A truck filled with boxes of special edition quarters depicting Olympic snowboarding overturned en route to Vancouver for the Feb. 20 coin launch at Royal Bank and Petro-Canada locations.
“The Mint has received the returned material and we are currently screening and processing the coins,” said Royal Canadian Mint communications director Christine Aquino.
“Therefore, we cannot speculate at this time on the amount returned.”
Snowboarding is the sixth in a 17-part series of special circulation coins and the first to be released in 2008.
Apples without Applause
A Feb 18 news conference by Assembly of First Nations national chief Phil Fontaine was disrupted by a Native 2010 Resistance protester who dumped apples on the podium.
Red on the outside, white on the inside, apples symbolize for some, natives who adopt white values and culture.
"We do not want the Olympics on our land, you guys are all selling out, you are all betraying your people," the unidentified aboriginal woman said when she turned to address chiefs of the Squamish, Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Lil'wat. A fresh round of anti-Games graffiti, bearing slogans like "2010 Riot" and "Stolen Land" turned up around the city, including on a sign near the Pacific Coliseum figure skating venue. (ATR/B.Mackin)
"We've wasted a lot of good apples," Fontaine joked after the woman peacefully left the unsecured room.
At the press conference, Fontaine called native involvement in the 2010 Winter Olympics, via VANOC's Four Host First Nations secretariat, "an opportunity to create a better, more hopeful future for our people." He called on members of the First Nations to volunteer at the Games.
Trial for VANOC Partner
The executive director of VANOC’s Four Host First Nations is facing a March 31 trial on charges of mischief and uttering a threat.
Tewanee Joseph said the allegations are false and is confident he will be found not guilty in North Vancouver provincial court.
Joseph and Bobby Bell were charged Apr. 19, 2007, after an Apr. 8, 2007 incident in West Vancouver where they are accused of willfully damaging a door and uttering a threat to cause death or bodily harm against one complainant.
"We're aware of it, but understandably it would be inappropriate to comment while it is before the courts," said VANOC media relations director Chris Brumwell.
Buses in the Valley?
The Vancouver 2010 bus fleet base could be based more than 60 km from the Olympic city.
Tourism Abbotsford executive director Dan Stefanson says deal is being finalized for 500 motorcoaches to be headquartered at Abbotsford International Airport. Drivers, mechanics and support staff would stay at hotels in the Fraser Valley city.
“That’s a pretty significant piece of business for our community,” Stefanson said.
VANOC planned to acquire real estate for its bus system in the first quarter of 2008. Irene Kerr, vice-president of services and transportation, said in a prepared statement that “it is too early to confirm any possible locations.”
VANOC has contracted Florida-based Gameday Management Group to manage bus logistics.
Rather Shows Olympic City’s “Dickensian Underside”
HDNet's Dan Rather Reports: A Safe Place to Shoot Up documentary on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside ghetto debuted Feb. 19, one year and 51 weeks before the 2010 Games open.
The veteran newsman’s 25-minute expose contrasted the Olympic city’s scenic skyline with the 10-block area where 7,000 mostly homeless drug addicts live. He said it’s the “Dickensian underside of the city” with people sleeping on streets and openly using illicit drugs. It’s “one of the roughest areas in all of North America” where HIV and Hepatitis C infection rates are similar to those in Botswana.
Rather focused on the controversial European-style, legalized shooting gallery for heroin and cocaine and a prostitute-proposed brothel. However, he wondered if there’s enough time for Vancouver to fix the urban blight before the Olympics.
With reporting from Bob Mackin in Vancouver. For general comments or questions, click here The Golden 25 special edition magazine is now available in PDF. Click here to see who will be most influential in the Olympic Movement in 2008. Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com , for subscribers only.
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