A report in the Vancouver Courier says that Am Johal, chair of the Impact of the Olympics on the Community Coalition, a group overseeing Vancouver’s Olympic bid, feels the possible negative impact of the Games are being neglected while plans proceed.
“What we want to do is open up the dialogue, because the information coming out of the bid corporation and the city isn’t reflecting the reality of hosting these events, especially in regards to social issues.”
Johal said a bylaw restricting the conversion or demolition of single room occupancy hotels would have helped prevent the loss of affordable housing. The bylaw was voted down recently by Vancouver city council.
Michelle Penz, manager of medial relations for Vancouver’s bid, said that impact issues would be addressed after the initial bid is prepared. “This is an issue that we are seriously considering, and are concerned about. If we were to produce a bid that would result in people losing their homes or in price gouging, that certainly would not be a sustainable bid”, she said.
She added, “we’ve only just started moving forward on the community development and sustainability issues. Not because we’ve done anything wrong, it’s just that you have to face this process. This is actually a fairly recent movement to really take into consideration community impact”.
Jill Davidson, senior housing planner, assured that impact studies will be done. “We want to make sure this is a socially inclusive Olympics. We have set up a process, including the Impact of the Olympics to assess the impacts”, she said.
Johal said that he isn’t opposed to the bid, but he has questions about public spending priorities.
“In the context of hospitals being shut down in rural B.C., courthouses, legal services being cut back, massive cutbacks to welfare services, we think that there needs to be a public dialogue”, he said.
He added that a referendum would allow voters to decide whether the Games are worth $4 billion.
