Dodging the Olympic security costs

Posted February 19, 2009 by Sacha Peter - Link
Category: Olympics Comments Off

The government of British Columbia managed to have the federal government take on the majority of the Olympic security bill.

Provincial release – Federal release

The federal government’s release is much more detailed than BC’s release.

The provincial release says it will pay the federal government $63.7 million (plus it has already paid $24 million), and increase its share of infrastructure funding by up to $165 million over the next three years. In exchange, the federal government will completely take over the operations of Olympic security. Inferred in this is a total cost of $252 million to the province, which the federal release uses.

The federal government mentions that its share is $647 million, for a total cost of $900 million.

When the costs are broken down, about half of it goes to the RCMP, but I will just cut and paste it from the federal release:

* $491.9M to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Integrated Security Unit) to lead, develop and deliver the integrated security plan for the 2010 Games. The RCMP will provide security for athletes, coaches, officials and all other participants in the Games.
* $212M to the Department of National Defence to provide unique military skills to support the RCMP in securing the Games.
* $25M to Transport Canada for a contribution to NAV Canada for enhanced air navigation services along the Sea-to-Sky corridor, and to ensure the safe and secure movement of aircraft during the Games.
* $8.8M to Transport Canada to perform inspection and enforcement activities on transportation systems during the Games.
* $11M to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to provide intelligence support related to threats to the national security of Canada, including the 2010 Games.
* $9.8M to Industry Canada to provide effective, interference-free broadband for radio-communication networks and wireless devices used by the security agencies during the Games.
* $1.2M to Citizenship and Immigration Canada for security screening measures associated with the Games accreditation process. The accreditation card will serve as both temporary resident visa and security access card for Games venues.
* $1.2M to Public Safety Canada to coordinate with federal organizations responsible for 2010 security and public safety issues, provinces, territories, first responders, industry, and international counterparts.
* $0.9M to the Public Health Agency of Canada for public health surveillance, provision of medical equipment and supplies, emergency training, and laboratory services.
* The Government of Canada will contribute an additional $1.4M to the federal employee benefit plan, for certain overtime costs related to RCMP.
* In addition, the Government of Canada has set aside $137M as a contingency reserve in case of unforeseen events requiring additional security measures.

This announcement should be considered a major victory for the government – it removes a large degree of budgetary risk associated with the Olympics, and it seriously blunts the attacks that the NDP would have over future costs. Although the budget has been increased from original projections, there is far more certainty with the final cost, especially with the provisions that the federal government will pick up cost overruns.

It is unlikely now that Olympic spending will haunt the government come election time as the security costs were the major “known unknown” (now a “known known”). There still is the issue of cost overruns on other projects related to the Olympics (e.g. the downtown convention centre), but this is unlikely to gain traction.