View from the Peak 2 Peak gondola's 3.78 mile, 11-minute journey. (ATR/B. Mackin)Whistler Blackcomb Reaches New Heights
On Dec. 12, Whistler Blackcomb opened its new $40.41 million Peak 2 Peak Gondola, which is expected to be the marquee tourist draw of the 2010 Games.
The 3.78 mile system, by Austria’s Doppelmayr, shuttles passengers between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains in 11 minutes and is 1,430 feet above Fitzsimmons Creek at its highest point. Whistler Creekside is the 2010 Games’ alpine skiing venue, while Blackcomb is site of the Whistler Sliding Centre.
Intrawest Resorts Senior Vice President Hugh Smythe and world-renowned resort designer Paul Mathews of Whistler-based Ecosign conceived a way to connect the two mountains during a 1997 trip to Zermatt, near Switzerland’s famed Matterhorn. Now it’s reality.
"I was here opening day of Whistler in 1966 and worked on the mountain that year, and then was lucky to design and build Blackcomb in 1980, that was epic," Smythe said. "Now we've got this. This is really the crowning glory."
VANOC Borrowed Money in Third Quarter
VANOC recorded a $50.67 million deficit for the Aug. 1-Oct. 31 quarter. It could have been worse without a Nov. 14 payment of $71.6 million from the IOC. The sum was originally due by March 31, 2009.
“We're borrowing money,” said VANOC Chief Financial Officer John McLaughlin. “So we asked the IOC, ‘would you mind giving us the money early?’"
With only two weeks remaining in the 2008 calendar year, only 12 contracts are shown as being awarded on the VANOC Web site. McLaughlin said more would be posted “in the next few weeks.”
McLaughlin said all sponsor payments are current and none of the companies supplying goods, services and cash is expected to default.
“There’s a plan B for just about everything we do in terms of our operational requirements,” he added.
However, Executive Vice President of Revenue, Marketing and Communications Dave Cobb had a different take during the same media conference call.
“We could speculate -- we have about 60 partners now -- that all of them or any of them may have challenges in the future,” Cobb said. “To have 60 different plan Bs, just from a sponsorship standpoint, would not be a good use of our time.”
General Motors pledged $41.19 million in vehicles for VANOC use and is seeking a financial lifeline from governments on both sides of the border.
VANOC claims its revised budget, to be ratified by the board of directors on Jan. 21, is balanced, contains a healthy contingency and won’t need more taxpayers’ money.
Auditor General Frustrated over Budget Differences
British Columbia's auditor general claims the Liberal government is hiding the costs of the 2010 Games from taxpayers.
John Doyle said Dec. 11 that his independent office had "fundamental differences of opinion" with Premier Gordon Campbell's administration, so it wouldn’t publish a new report.
A 2006 report by then-Auditor General Arn van Iersel estimated the Games would cost taxpayers $2.04 billion.
"(Costs) should be declared in a single document by government and that document should be updated on a regular basis, with details of the risks," Doyle said.
Doyle said the government doesn’t want to include additional costs borne by the 2010 Winter Games secretariat, Crown corporation sponsors or the municipalities and public bodies financing Olympic venues and activities. Doyle may resurrect the report after reviewing VANOC’s revised budget, expected to be ratified on Jan. 21.
Finance and Olympics Minister Colin Hansen challenged Doyle to release his draft report.
“The report, together with our (five-page) response, would answer a lot of questions and give people confidence that the Olympics are on track and headed towards a big success,” Hansen said.
“(Doyle) is a representative of taxpayers and the taxpayers are the ones who are supporting these Games,” said NDP Olympics critic Harry Bains. “It’s not this premier’s personal property.”
VANOC CFO John McLaughlin said meetings were held with the Office of the Auditor General in January to review the 2007 VANOC budget. “(Doyle has not) seen the budget we’ve been working on starting last summer and through the fall,” Cobb said. “We’ve moved the project forward a lot since a year ago.”
Vancouver Mayor Cleans House
New Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson ended his first work week with a bang.
City Manager Judy Rogers was fired in a Dec. 12 secret meeting in the mayor’s office and replaced immediately with Dr. Penny Ballem, a former provincial deputy minister of health. City Manager Judy Rogers was fired Friday and replaced immediately with Dr. Penny Ballem, a former provincial deputy minister of health. (ATR/B. Mackin)
Rogers was city manager since 1999 and sat on the VANOC and 2010 Legacies Now boards. She was widely blamed for prolonging the 2007 civic workers’ strike that briefly crippled the city.
"A project like this one demands people who are tireless, loyal and collaborative and Judy was all of those," said VANOC CEO John Furlong.
Ballem, her likely replacement on the VANOC board, is the partner of former Vancouver appointee Marion Lay. Lay was an early leader of the Vancouver 2010 bid and established 2010 Legacies Now.
In 2006, then-Mayor Sam Sullivan replaced Lay with A&W Restaurants chairman Jeff Mooney. Robertson is expected to announce a replacement for Mooney, who chaired VANOC’s strategic communications committee.
Auditor KPMG was chosen to review spending on the Southeast False Creek Olympic Village later in the day. An $81.37 million loan to struggling developer Millennium, decided at a secret Oct. 14 city council meeting, was the central issue of the Nov. 15 civic election.
…Briefs
…Confirmation for ticket applicants in the United States, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria and Sweden has been delayed three weeks. CoSport told their customers that VANOC allotted the domestic hospitality and foreign ticketing sponsor more tickets for their lottery, so notification would not happen until Jan. 5. “This small delay provides a higher chance of you receiving the tickets that you requested,” said a Dec. 12 e-mail to clients.
…An arm of the British Columbia government is looking for a company to fly over and photograph every neighborhood in 28 municipalities in Fraser Valley, Metro Vancouver and the Sea-to-Sky corridor. A Dec. 10 request for proposals from the Integrated Land Management Bureau said it needs high-definition aerial photography to be shot between March 1 to April 30, 2009. The project is for an emergency planning database to be used by the RCMP, Department of National Defence, Emergency Management B.C. and City of Vancouver during the 2010 Games. The budget was not disclosed. Deadline for bids is Jan. 10.
… VANOC is looking for a special events parking management company to provide parking and permit services for athletes, officials, workforce, media, sponsors and spectators. There will be 13,500 parking spaces at eight to 10 park and ride lots for spectators and the Games' workforce. Three fleet depots will hold 3,500 vehicles. Another four lots at each of the 20 venues will hold approximately 12,000 vehicles that contain permits being sold by VANOC. The request for proposals said the winning bidder must staff all the lots and "support an online parking reservation system." Deadline is Jan.9
… Four RCMP officers will not be charged with killing a Polish immigrant at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007.
Eyewitness video ignited a global firestorm of controversy, but the B.C. Criminal Justice Branch announced Dec. 12 that Cpl. Benjamin Robinson and Const. Kwesi Millington and two constables identified only as Bentley and Rundel would not be prosecuted in the TASER death of 40-year-old Robert Dziekanski. A pathologist blamed the officers' restraint of Dziekanski instead of the high-voltage shock of the controversial stun gun.
Robinson was reassigned to the RCMP Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit, but is under investigation for drunk driving after an October crash killed a motorcyclist.
…Stephane Dion will not be Canada’s Olympic Prime Minister. Dion resigned from the federal Liberal Party leadership amid an ongoing constitutional crisis. He was replaced by Michael Ignatieff on Dec. 10 in a vote by the Opposition caucus.
The Liberals lost the Oct. 14 federal election and were preparing for a May 2009 leadership convention. Dion sparked a constitutional crisis when he forged an early-December coalition with the NDP that was supported by the Bloc Quebecois, which favors Quebec independence. They sought to defeat the minority Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. A confidence vote was postponed when Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean recessed Parliament until the late-January delivery of a new federal budget.
…Liberal Quebec Premier Jean Charest won a third consecutive term in the Dec. 8 provincial election. Charest’s campaign included promised funding for various Quebec City sports facilities and he floated the idea of Quebec City bidding for the 2018 or 2022 Winter Games. Quebec’s largest city, Montreal, hosted the 1976 Summer Games. The $1.5 billion debt was finally retired in 2006 with help from tobacco tax proceeds.
… Whistler 2010 Sport Legacies Society, operator of three new Whistler Olympic venues, unveiled its logo and Whistler2010sportlegacies.com on Dec. 15.
The not-for-profit society will own and operate the Whistler Sliding Centre, Whistler Olympic Park and Whistler Athletes’ Centre after the 2010 Games. The seven-member board includes members of the Squamish and Lil’wat First Nations, Resort Municipality of Whistler, Calgary Olympic Development Association, VANOC, British Columbia government and Canadian Olympic Committee.
With reporting from Bob Mackin in Vancouver.
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