Vancouver View -- Housing Needed for Whistler Workers; VANOC Sues Roadtrips

More housing is needed in Whistler for workforce accommodation during the Games.VANOC has reached its goal of 3,000 rooms for the Olympic family in Whistler. But, VANOC continues to wrestle with lodging for workers and volunteers.

Communications director Maureen Douglas said May 25 that the rooms at 19 properties in the mountain resort will accommodate sponsors, IOC, federation executives, politicians and media.

However, 1,000 free rooms in private dwellings are needed for the Sea-to-Sky corridor workforce. Douglas said “several hundred” families have responded to the offer of free tickets to select events, but more applicants are needed. Douglas said a plan to hire Squamish-berthed cruise ships for workforce lodging is “still under review.”

Whistler Policy and Special Projects General Manager Mike Vance said only three landlords have applied under the resort municipality’s allowance for nightly workforce accommodation rentals. During the height of winter, Whistler normally has 14,000 workers. Three quarters of the 11,000 workers based near the village are renters.

Meanwhile, Tourism Whistler Vice President Diana Lyons said a survey of 600 people waitlisted for Games accommodation found respondents were willing to pay a 30 to 50 percent premium on peak-season rates. Lyons said Tourism Whistler members have received $890,000 in bookings since March 1. Games-time prices range from $266 to $533 per bedroom, per night.

“The consumer has spoken in terms of what they think is a fair price to pay,” Lyons said.

VANOC Sues Winnipeg Travel Company

A Winnipeg, Manitoba sports travel company selling tickets to the 2010 Winter Olympics is the target of the latest VANOC lawsuit.

Roadtrips and its president, Dave Guenther, are named in a May 11 lawsuit filed by VANOC in B.C. Supreme Court. VANOC seeks an injunction to ban Roadtrips from buying or selling tickets. It also wants a judge to order Roadtrips to relinquish its 2010 Games tickets and provide a list of customers who bought tickets.

Jet Set Sports and Tickets.com are the only authorized Canadian ticket agents. Resale, except via VANOC’s to-be-launched system, is prohibited by VANOC.

The lawsuit said VANOC “repeatedly requested that Roadtrips and Guenther cease their wrongful conduct” since March 2008. It claims the fees charged by Roadtrips “grossly exceed the face value of the tickets.”

VANOC alleges there is a “real and substantial risk” Roadtrips will not be able to deliver tickets. That was the experience of hundreds of people who bought tickets to the Beijing 2008 opening ceremony from Roadtrips. A Texas lawsuit, however, was dismissed on Dec. 30, 2008 because the plaintiffs received refunds.

Roadtrips has yet to file a statement of defense. Guenther said, via e-mail, that VANOC is trying to defame his company’s corporate reputation “based solely on the fact that Roadtrips disagrees Canadian Pacific will be transporting goods to Vancouver for sponsors and venues. (Rick Robinson/CPR)that VANOC has the right to limit the secondary distribution of tickets.”

VANOC Delivers Goods on Customs for Games

The VANOC logistics vice president says a May 28 seminar on customs clearance and freight forwarding is a first for an organizing committee.

Irene Kerr said 60 people from more than 30 companies representing NOCs, sponsors and media are expected to attend the three-hour seminar at the 2010 Commerce Centre in Robson Square.

The presentation includes personnel from Canada Border Services Agency, Canadian Pacific and the Pacific Group of Companies. German global giant Schenker struck sponsorship deals for the 2002 to 2008 Games, but the $38 million VANOC logistics department awarded a service contract to Surrey, B.C.-based Pacific.

Kerr estimates 34 shipping containers of team equipment alone are coming to the Games. Contents will include things like bobsleds, medical supplies, uniforms, food and even trading pins. Hundreds more containers will be packed with venue overlay materials, from barricades to grandstands.

Kerr said the VANOC logistics team will number between 600 and 1,000 people and be responsible for receiving goods in the main distribution centre at Delta’s Tilbury Industrial Park and sending them onward to venues.

Briefs…

…VANOC is seeking bids before June 22 for temporary hostel rooms to house temporary workers during the Games. VANOC pledged $222,000 for budget accommodation in a bid to prevent pressure on the city’s already scarce low-income housing. Two locations would accommodate as many as 400 guests during the peak of the Games.

…On May 15, the City of Vancouver began accepting applications from landlords for temporary, 30-day rental licenses. The $94 fee covers the June 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010 period for dwellings not already occupied by tenants. Tourism Vancouver advocated alternative accommodation because it estimated only 550 downtown hotel rooms are available for Games-time.

…CBSA is spending $11.1 million for Games-time security in a variety of areas. The November 2007 Pacific Region Olympics operations plan and funding request, obtained under Access to Information by the Work Less Party, shows the agency’s Olympics Intelligence Unit coordinating a wide-ranging program of enforcement to combat perceived threats involving organized crime, sex trade workers, human trafficking and terrorism. Roles of intelligence officers, it said, could include gathering information on illegal workers at Olympics venues and investigating warehouses containing counterfeit goods.

With reporting from Bob Mackin in Vancouver.

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