The True Cost of The Olympics

The True Costs of the Olympics
Since 1896, the modern Olympics have brought countries around the world together in celebrating athleticism, community, peace and friendship. No other event has ever been the subject of such publicity and celebration.

Unfortunately, what is not exposed in our media is the financial, and most importantly, the human costs of the Olympics.

In 2004, the operational costs of the 2010 Olympic Winter games were estimated to $1.354 billion dollars. As of mid-2009, the estimate was up to $1.7 billion, all coming from non-government sources. BC taxpayers are guaranteed to be picking up a $580 million bill to construct or renovate venues throughout Vancouver and Whistler, and we can also look forward to handing over our spare change for the $40 million budget that failed to receive funding from private sponsorship and advertising.
On Cypress Mountain Ski Resort, which will be hosting the freestyle (aerials, moguls, ski cross and snowboarding events), $16.6 million dollars is being spent on upgrading alone. $1 billion has been budgeted for security, which is five times the original estimate of $200 million.

To ease the minds of our extreme-spending politicians, they’ve been offered their own thrones at the 2010 event. In a recent article in the Columbia Valley News, MLA Norm Macdonald called out corporations and organizations for their ridiculous spending on seats in order to charm members of the government. “Publicly owned corporations like BC Hydro and ICBC have spent $1.5 million on Olympic tickets. And the government’s own Olympic Ticketing Strategy spent $900,000 to buy tickets so that government MLA’s and cabinet ministers can attend prime events in the best seats.”

If you’re not cringing from the sudden rise in your taxes, perhaps the human cost will make you rethink your stance on the Olympics.
When Vancouver bid for the 2010 Winter Games, federal, provincial and municipal governments pledged to protect the city's rental housing and ensure no one would be left homeless because of the Games, and the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee has guaranteed to “Protect rental-housing stock to ensure no residents are displaced, evicted, made homeless or face unreasonable increases in rent as a result of the Games.” (CTV NEWS) However, the exact opposite is happening. Many low-income Vancouver residents depend on single occupancy hotel rooms for their home, but since the planning for the games has started, the value of these hotels has risen, thus increasing rent. On a $350 monthly shelter allowance from Welfare, the tenants have been evicted, and the hotels are now being demolished to make room for condos. (www.gamesmonitor.uk.org). As of February of 2009, the agreement between the province and the city of Vancouver to build transition low-income housing in 12 areas of the city had not even started to materialize.

Considering the number of homeless people in Vancouver will exceed the 5,000 athletes who will be competing in the 2010 games, it’s shocking that the city of Vancouver’s only response to the homeless crisis is their ‘Project Civil City’, which focuses on cracking down on open drug use and aggressive panhandling by increased law enforcement. Don’t be fooled, this is not for the good of the community. This project was created to give the Olympics the illusion that Vancouver doesn’t have a homeless problem. A similar program was created in Sydney during the 2000 Games and in Atlanta in 1996 where homeless citizens were removed from the scene to create a facade of a ‘clean’ city to Olympic visitors. These ‘solutions’ are nothing but temporary band-aids to urban poverty.

BC’s First Nations are also fighting the costs of the 2010 Games. The main focus of protest is ‘No Olympics on Stolen Native Land’, which refers to the fact that in BC, “virtually no treaties were made in the process of colonization & settlement. Treaties were required under British, and later Canadian, law prior to any trade or settlement (i.e., the 1763 Royal Proclamation). Although today the government seeks 'modern-day treaties' with its Indian Act band councils, the fact is in 'BC' the land is clearly occupied by an illegal colonial system.” (www.no2010.com). While the highest rates of depression, suicide, poverty, disease, police violence and unemployment effect Indigenous peoples in BC, our government insists on spending $3 billion dollars hosting a corporate event on land that does not even belong to us in the first place. “The riches grabbed from First Nations traditional lands over the last 15 0 years have allowed the Province to reach the stage where it can mount a $3-billion international sporting event. There is no justification in telling our First Nations that there is no money left over to provide what amounts each year to 1,000th of the cost of those Games, to address the dire conditions that they are experiencing.” – Chief Thomas of First Nations Forestry Council, as quoted in Columbia Valley News

This new awareness brings on the age old questions: How did we get here? How has our world come to this time where corporations have more power than our people? How, when we have a Democratic Government, are the voices of thousands of citizens not represented by our leaders? The Olympics, at one time, was an event that brought together the entire world in the name of sports, community and pride. Now, it’s a corporation that sells us patriotism; instead of fighting with guns, we fight with gold medals and shake hands at the end. Through advertisements, clothing and even our food, the master minds behind the Olympics are selling us a sense of community and personal pride, as if we ourselves are the athletes. How much are YOU willing to pay?