John Furlong, CEO of Vancouver 2010, said he’s hoping to get the extra $55 million requested from the federal government soon.
Pique News Magazine reports that Furlong is planning to speak this week to the Minister responsible for the 2010 Games, David Emerson.
He said, “we’d like to have certainty. I’m hoping that we’ll get it in the next little while. In the meantime we’re pressing on and we’re assuming the best”.
Last year VANOC asked the federal and provincial governments for an additional $55- million each after it became apparent the venues were over their original budgets, reports the magazine.
Meanwhile during the Games Olympic alpine skiers on Whistler Mountain may have to detour around a tiny, vulnerable frog – the coastal tailed frog – which lives in Boyd’s Creek adjacent to the alpine course, reports Canadian Press (CP).
The frog is listed as a special concern of the Canadian Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife.
The course has been shifted away from the creek in a couple of spots, but officials may have to reroute the creek near the finish line. Any modifications, including collecting and relocating tadpoles and frogs from the creek, will have to receive provincial and federal environmental approval.
To address another environmental concern plans to cut down some trees on the ski run were delayed until wildlife experts were sure there were no birds’ nests in use said Rod MacLeod, manager of the Whistler Creekside project.
Olympic organizers expect to go beyond government regulation as part of the Olympic movement’s recent adoption of sustainability as a central element of its philosophy, reports the Globe and Mail.
