When International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge said at the Turin Closing Ceremony “I call upon the youth of the world to assemble four years from now in Vancouver to celebrate the 21st Olympic Winter Games”, the eyes of the world turned to the Canadian city of Vancouver.
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan told Canadian broadcaster CTV Monday that he and his city are ready to take on the challenge and that he’s blessed with “the most incredible organizing team” on the ground. He said his agenda is to make sure the city benefits and the country benefits in every way possible from the 2010 Olympics.
“I plan to meet with different levels of government to make sure that everybody is totally committed to this and making our country better in every way”, he said.
David Emerson, the government minister responsible for the Vancouver 2010 Games, said the number one challenge that lies ahead is the rise in construction costs stemming from the heavy building activity in Western Canada.
He told CTV. “this is not just an Olympics cost-increase phenomenon. Throughout Western Canada…there’s been just a tremendous amount of capital investment and construction activity. So that whole issue of how we contain those costs is probably the number one factor”.
The provincial government has already set aside extra money for cost overruns but the new federal government has not yet committed the money. Emerson said recently “it’s never been a blank cheque and I would never be party to a blank cheque. I think you always have to do the due diligence that the taxpayers are expecting of you”.
VANOC’s CEO John Furlong said he’s confident that the private sector will pitch in more money and that VANOC has already raised between $500 million and $600 million from the Canadian marketplace. He said, “the private sector really is who we turn to put on the Games so we will have to generate about $1.7 billion from the private sector. We’ve got off to a great start”.
