Security costs for the 2010 Winter Olympics are now anticipated to come in at just under $1-billion, an amount in the upper range of recently revised official estimates and more than five times what was budgeted when Vancouver won the right in 2003 to host the Games.
Federal officials who say they are familiar with the "very sensitive" matter confirmed the budget figure, but refused to shed further light on the billion-dollar package.
With barely more than a year to go before the Games begin, Ottawa has yet to disclose publicly what will be far and away the Olympics' largest single, government-funded item. There was no mention of Olympic security in Tuesday's federal budget.
With taxpayer unease at the price tag of the Games already growing because of the recession and the well-publicized financial troubles of the athletes village, the federal government may be loath to release the full cost of providing security.
Ottawa has also been involved in months of haggling with the B.C. government over sharing security expenses.
Keeping the Games safe from terrorist attacks and free of disruptions from activists has been described as the largest peacetime security operation in Canadian history, with more than 12,000 police, private security personnel and members of the armed forces expected to be deployed.
Yet the original security budget was set at $175-million, a figure derided by experts and International Olympic Committee officials as far too low.
Now, officials are bracing for blaring headlines about the billion-dollar cost of protecting a 17-day event.
Public Safety Canada spokesman David Charbonneau said yesterday that the department would not comment on any dollar figures. "The final costs will depend, in part, on how the Games proceed," he said in an e-mail. "A new cost-sharing arrangement with the province is expected soon."
B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen, also the Minister Responsible for the Olympics, is particularly anxious to have final security costs nailed down in time for the province's own budget on Feb. 17.
Mr. Hansen has shown increasing irritation over the failure to reach an agreement with Ottawa, accusing federal bureaucrats of trying to shift unwarranted costs onto the province.
The two sides have a deal to split security expenses 50-50, but only for securing actual venues, not for providing protection outside Olympic sites or underwriting normal operating costs of the RCMP and the armed forces.
"I guess one of my concerns is the way the federal government has approached the overall security number is to include a lot of numbers that I would suggest are part of base budgets," Mr. Hansen told reporters this week.
"If anything, I think the number the federal government will use is an inflated number to what the actual incremental numbers will be."
However, the head of security for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, which took place a few months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, said that a billion dollars is a realistic figure "in today's day and age."
Dave Tubbs, a retired FBI agent who served as executive director of the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command, said he was adamant early on, in visits to Vancouver while working for a private security company, that the original $175-million security budget was totally unrealistic. "I insisted it couldn't be done [for that].. I know it's grown dramatically since then."
He said Olympic security officers have to plan against all kinds of emergencies, from shutting down airports and harbours to clearing blocked roads or even preparing for earthquakes. "When you add everything in, $1-billion would make sense to me."
Meanwhile, the head of the RCMP-led Integrated Security Unit for the Olympics, Assistant Commissioner Bud Mercer, said he is not letting budget uncertainties get in the way of preparations for the Games.
"No one is disturbed or unfocused by the lack of [budget]clarity," he said.
He hopes there won't be a huge public outcry when the budget is finally made public. "We are responsible for protecting residents, visitors, the IOC family, athletes and officials. We have an obligation to ensure that while they are here, they are safe.
"There is not a family in the world, which will have their children here as athletes, that doesn't expect them to come home safely," Assistant Commissioner Mercer said.
One potential problem is the federal government's decision last month to roll back a projected wage increase for members of the RCMP. Staff representatives are urging members not to relocate to B.C. for the Olympics, unless ordered to do so.
"There is a swell among the membership because of the Conservatives' [action]" Staff-Sergeant Brian Roach said. "They are not going to be voluntarily putting their hands up."
Colin Freeze