The RCMP Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit will receive $394 million in the new security budget. (ATR)Less than a year before the Olympics, the security budget for the Vancouver Games is revealed.
Federal and provincial governments ended months of speculation Thursday when they announced a $720.6 million budget. The original estimate in the 2003 bid was $140 million.
The figures confirm speculation that the budget will be about five times higher than originally forecast in the bid submitted by Vancouver in 2003.
"The underlying operational and financial planning assumptions for Games security have changed significantly," said a statement in the new joint security agreement.
VANOC CEO John Furlong called it the "right budget to make absolutely certain that the Games are safe and secure." In hindsight, he said it was "unreasonable" to ask a bid committee to estimate security costs so far in advance.
The governments agreed to split the original budget, but it was never truly embraced by the RCMP.
The federal force responsible for Games security identified numerous "funding gaps and risks" in a September 2005 report.
Under the new agreement, the B.C. government will cede funding authority to the federal government after paying the rest of its original $70 million pledge. B.C. agreed to take on $132 million worth of new federal infrastructure spending.
“I think it’s a fair deal for British Columbia,” said B.C. finance and Olympics minister Colin Hansen.
The $720.6 million includes $394 million for the RCMP Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit and $169 million for Department of National Defense.
A $110 million contingency is almost the size of the original estimate.
Federal NDP Olympics critic Peter Julian said the federal Conservative government's spending on the Games is “less and less transparent and more and more out of control.”
“It was pretty sleazy that they hid behind the Barack Obama visit to throw this out,” Julian said. The new U.S. president made his first foreign state visit to Ottawa on Feb. 19 and met with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
With reporting from Bob Mackin in Vancouver.
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