(ATR) The rainy day fund for the Vancouver Olympics is about to run dry, a company building a road to a mountain venue pays dearly for the death of one of its workers, and Vancouver wins the title as “most liveable city”.
Rainy Day Fund Woes
Vancouver Olympic organizers say they expect to have as little as $CA10 million left in its rainy day fund by Games time. Cost overruns are largely to blame.
The Whistler Athletes Centre, which includes a gym and lodge, was supposed to cost $CA16 million, but the price ballooned by $CA20 million. That blowout along will cause VANOC expects to drain half its nearly $CA54 million contingency fund.
“We expect to allocate the majority of that contingency to venue construction, save $10 million, which we will carry into the Games,” said acting VANOC CEO Dave Cobb.
New Democratic Party Olympics critic Harry Bains said VANOC is using the fund “to cover up mistakes or incompetence.”
“I think is very serious for the taxpayers,” Bains said.
The Whistler Athletes Centre overruns were pinpointed in Partnerships B.C.’s April report, concealed by the provincial government until last week. It was one of several venues identified as cost and scheduling risks.
The government has not explained why it waited until August 16 to publish the report. VANOC executive vice-president of construction Dan Doyle is a director of government-owned Partnerships BC.
“It’s the way (Premier Gordon) Campbell runs his government, and the organizations that are funded through government,” Bains said. “There are too few people having fingers in too many entities.”
Company Fined for Worker Accident
A West Vancouver company was fined $CA216,000 on Aug. 3, more than a year after one of its workers became first fatality involving construction for the 2010 Olympics.
Murrin Construction’s citation is one of the biggest fines levied by WorkSafe BC, the provincial occupational health and safety agency.
Gary Michael Greer, 45, died in a June 12, 2006, blast in the Callaghan Valley. WSB blamed Murrin’s gross negligence for Greer’s death. The report said Greer lacked proper blasting equipment and should have been stopped by his foreman.
Greer’s possible impairment, it said,may have influenced his ability to make clear decisions.
“There was no effective control over the personnel involved with this operation or the equipment used in it,” it said.
“Industry and regulatory safe work practices were not being followed.”
Murrin has $CA11.9 million contract to build a road connecting the 2010 Nordic Centre with the Sea to Sky Highway.
Most Liveable Vancouver
The uncollected trash piling up in Vancouver due to a city worker strike may belie the better qualities of life the city offers.
For the fifth year in a row, the U.K.-based Economist Intelligence Unit, part
of the Economist magazine, said Vancouver is the most livable city in the world.
The survey rates cities on their attractiveness to business travelers; 132 were rated in the latest edition.
The Economist publication says that Vancouver has low crime and low exposure to instability or terrorism, coupled with developed transportation and communications infrastructure.
The city workers’ strike, which began late July, shows no signs of ending. The left-wing minority party on the city council is urging Mayor Sam Sullivan and the right-of-center party to call a mediator. The Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association added its voice to those seeking an urgent solution, as garbage chokes the notorious Vancouver ghetto.
While the Economist Intelligence Unit gives Vancouver high marks, United Nations Population Fund painted a different picture of the city’s most notorious area when it released its State of the World Population 2007 in June.
It described the Downtown Eastside ghetto as “a two-kilometre square stretch of decaying rooming houses, seedy strip bars and shady pawnshops.”
The area, regarded as Canada’s poorest neighborhood, is home to 10,000 people, including many homeless, drug or alcohol addicted and/or mentally ill. UNFPA said the Hepatitis C rate in the Downtown Eastside is just below 70% and HIV prevalence rate estimated at 30% -- “the same as Botswana’s.”
With reporting from Vancouver by Bob Mackin.
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