Olympic Games
Initial Games security budget left out millions in possible costs
By Stephanie Levitz, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Friday, February 20, 2009

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Internal documents show that a year after the 9-11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the bid for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver included a low-ball estimate for security costs based on a low level of threat.

Documents obtained using federal Access to Information laws show the original $175 million security budget included in the bid for the Games was riddled with holes and guesses despite the worldwide threat of terrorism.

The federal government has now announced the real budget for Olympic security is $900 million.

"The estimated security budget that was developed is based on a low threat assessment which means that should the threat level escalate to medium or high, there would be a significant impact on the current $175M (million) budget and would also have significant funding implications for other security partners," state the documents obtained by The Canadian Press.

Plans are now being made based on a medium threat to the Games, one of the many reasons the costs have ballooned, officials say.

Securing the Games is the responsibility of the RCMP, which is overseeing an integrated security unit, ISU, made up of Mounties, local police, the military and private security contractors.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Bud Mercer, who oversees the unit, defended the budget on Friday.

"We have to prepare in a reasonable way for I would suggest all threats, but at a reasonable level," he told reporters at the ISU’s headquarters in Richmond, B.C.

"That comes with some cost, it comes with some preparation and it comes with planning."

Despite being in control of the entire security plan, Mercer couldn’t explain how the budgets for individual departments connected with the Games were developed for the final budget.

Access documents showed that in the initial plans, money wasn’t allocated for things like emergency response teams or costs that other federal departments might incur in 2010.

For example, in the new budget, Transport Canada received $34 million for air security services while $1.2 million was given to Immigration for screening people being accredited to attend the Olympics.

Mercer said the $492 million specifically for the ISU was pushed so high by a number of factors.

The 2002 budget only covered the actual Olympic venues, not what’s called "urban domain," areas such as live entertainment sites.

"Although the Vancouver Police Department is imbedded in the ISU, the costs association with the deployment activities is NOT included in the current budget of $175M (million)," a briefing note dated June 2007 states.

"In other words, there is no funding allocated yet for urban domain."

Now, those areas are covered, said Mercer. For Vancouver alone, the price tag is $10 million.

About 7,000 police officers, 4,000 private security professionals and 4,000 soldiers will be involved in policing the Games.

The budget for the military’s portion of security is now $212 million, compared to $2.1 million in the original bid budget.

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan admitted the five-fold increase is due to the fact that back in 2002 there was actually no security plan in place.

"The budget that exists now is a real budget based on a real plan for the Games," he said in an interview late Thursday night.

The B.C. government has long said it understood the initial agreement to reflect only security for Games venues.

Negotiations over who would pick up the bill for additional costs held up the release of the new budget.

In the end, British Columbia forfeited $165 million in infrastructure funding from the federal government in exchange for only paying its previously agreed upon $87.5 million tab for security.

"The problem with the old security agreement is that it really invited a co-management of the budget which we realized was not going to work," said B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen.

"This was not going to get us anywhere very fast with the approach that had been taken."

The documents also show that both the federal and B.C. governments did not want to formally tell the media about their cost-sharing plans for the budget.

The new budget was release late Thursday afternoon, via a hastily called teleconference with Hansen, while the rest of Canada was in the throes of excitement over the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama.

Taking American interests into account for Olympic security is a priority, the documents show.

"Security partners for the 2010 Games will have to pay close attention to the interests of the United States, so that U.S. expectations are managed and their questions answered in a satisfactory manner," says a February 2007 briefing note.

-With files from Jim Bronskill in Ottawa