Morgan:News:2010:Bronze Edition: September 2006

Friday, September 29, 2006

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Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1889

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC EXPECTED TO INK SPONSORSHIP DEAL WITH WORKOPOLIS TUESDAY

VANOC CEO John Furlong is expected to officially launch VANOC's "national online workforce recruitment program" when the 2010 organization announces a new sponsorship with Workopolis in Toronto Tuesday morning. Workopolis bills itself as Canada's largest on-line job site. It carries, on average, about 45,000 job openings at any given time. Workopolis, launched in 2000, is owned by a partnership of three Canadian media companies, The Globe and Mail division of Bell Globemedia, Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. and Gesca Ltd., the newspaper publishing subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada. Bell Globemedia is a subsidiary of Bell Communincatons, VANOC's largest sponsor. Workopolis has offices across Canada. Gesca, based in Quebec, provides Workopolis with its French language version and includes career listings from Gesca newspapers, including La Presse and Le Soleil. Workopolis also has a deal with Bell Globemedia's Report on Business TV program, whose studios are adjacent, and earlier this month resigned with Sympatico/MSN.ca, a popular Canadian portal, to refer people at its site to Workopolis.

BC GOVERNMENT USES 2010 GAMES CONCEPT TO ADVERTISE FOR HEALTH WORKERS

Speaking of Workopolis, a section of the BC government's Health Ministry has begun using the fact that the province is hosting the 2010 Olympics as one of the selling points for personnel ads on Workopolis to entice forensic nurses to submit resumes for work in Coquitlam, which, the ad says, is "located close to Vancouver, the host city of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games...". For a separate ad, the BC Provincial Health Services Authority also asks neonatal and perinatal nurses from beyond the provincial borders to apply for jobs in the province, adding, "If you crave adventure, British Columbia, host of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, has four seasons that provide a playground right at your fingertips."

TOURISM VANCOUVER ISLAND PONDER 2010 TOURIST STRATEGIES

Members of a task force set up by Tourism Vancouver Island spent about four hours in a meeting recently, thinking up ways before, during and after the 2010 Olympics to get tourists to see the Island, mostly after they have come to BC to see the 2010 Games. One area they thought they might focus on: the families of athletes and various others connected with the national Olympic and Paralympic teams. And there's also other members of the so-called Olympic and Paralympic families: VIPs, media, sponsors and the like. Thousands of these type of people will becoming to take part in various aspects of the 2010 Games, and many of them will bring their families with them. Tourism officials suggest many of those will want to tour various areas either before or after the Games, if they can get information to them about various sightseeing opportunities. The head of the Vancouver Island tourism task force is Karen Bonell, the director of Marketing & Sales for Mount Washington Alpine Resort.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 29, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1888
COMPTROLLER SAYS VANOC BEGAN HEDGING AS SOON AS IT COULD MANAGE THE RISKS

A senior financial executive of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) says that the organization essentially began hedging its US dollar revenues as soon as it could do so.

VANOC's vice-president of Finance and Comptroller John McLauglin was commenting on a portion of the BC Auditor General's report, released September 14, in which auditor Arn van Iersel said, "We were told by management of the Bid Corporation [before 2003] that hedging (for instance, locking in exchange rates through a forward currency contract that would settle in 2010) was being considered as a way to mitigate... risk. When the Games were awarded to Vancouver, the exchange rate could have been locked in at US $1 = $1.457, but steps to do that were not taken. As of the date of this report, the rate has fallen to US $1 = $1.125... This represents a loss for VANOC of approximately C$150 million for the broadcasting and international sponsorship revenues." The report based its calculations on IOC estimates of C$500 million as the estimated revenue figure, although the IOC cautioned that the actual amounts might be different.

Hedging, in this case, is a money-management strategy that gives assurances about what the exchange rates between the Canadian and US dollar will be into the future, and that, in turn affects how much VANOC can reasonably expect to receive from broadcast revenues and international sponsorship funding.

VANOC's vice-president of Finance and Comptroller John McLauglin suggests, however, the loss calculated by the Auditor General is notional, not actual. "VANOC needed to know a few things before it could enter into hedge transactions," he says. "We needed to know, for instance, when our cash flow is going to be there. We always had a pretty good idea from the International Olympic Committee, but if you enter into a hedge and you don't know your cash flow, you're mitigating one risk but you're taking on another risk that the cash flow was different. We wanted to be reasonably certain what the cash flows are, how much they are, what the currency would be, and when the money's coming. The other part of the equation when hedging is that we needed to have sufficient credit. You can't just go out and buy a hedge if you don't have, say, tens of millions of dollars in credit. Once we had all that in place, we went to our Board and it took some time to discuss it and get our policy approved."

Olympic organizations in general are risk-adverse and VANOC is no exception. McLaughlin says it wasn't until last March that all the necessary pieces of the arrangement came together, and VANOC began its hedging strategy. "If we took hedging on earlier, we would be taking on more risk without knowing what the cash flows were going to be."

As for how successful the hedging strategy might be, McLaughlin puts it this way: "At some points, the exchange rate will go up, and we'll look like geniuses, and sometimes it'll go down and it'll look like we're not. But what we have is certainty at the end, which is where we want it. Our goal is to create a budget surplus."

In a topic related to risk management, McLaughlin says he expects VANOC will likely take out cancellation insurance on the Games about 18 months to a year before the Opening Ceremonies. "Generally the insurance markets won't carry you before that time." He says the policy will only protect against VANOC's interests, not those of the International Olympic Committee. He expects the IOC will also take out a cancellation-insurance policy on the 2010 Games to protect its interests. In the meantime, VANOC has a wide range of liability-type insurance policies for a variety of Games aspects.

On another matter, McLaughlin says the week of senior managers going though initial drafts of the business plan VANOC expects to publish in November or early December was well worth it, and the plan seemed to be in fairly good shape. "That review was actually the culmination of about three months of work leading up to it, and it was the first time we'd brought it all together. It wasn't in bad shape, but it still needs more work. But given where we were when we began, it's in pretty good shape overall."

Other reports have indicated that the business plan, which incorporates the 2006 Winter Games operational experience in Torino, will be showing that VANOC expects to have operational revenues of about C$1.7 billion, and expenses of about C$1.6 billion. The business plan will be updated at least two more times before the end of 2009.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 29, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1887

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

NEWS OF 2010 MASCOT RFP WIDELY DISSEMINATED

VANOC has gone the extra mile to ensure that graphic designers and related type companies know that it wants them to respond to the RFP for creating the Olympic and Paralympic mascots. It's posted features about the concept on its web site, distributed news releases to all and sundry, and even hired Cossette Communications, a Canadian PR firm, to get the word out, as well as distributed the RFP through the normal BC Bid channels. The story finally hit the Canadian Press and its companion Broadcast News wires about six hours later. The wire service's copy is sent to most major news outlets in Canada, and its stories are often picked up by other wire services in other countries. It was also picked up by major sports channels, such as TSN Canada. And, of course, stories about the concept were also picked up by CTV, the national Canadian broadcaster that is sponsoring the 2010 Games. It also appeared the following day in the current issue of the International Olympic Newsletter, which has a huge international audience.

BEIJING ISSUES MORE SETS OF OLYMPIC COINS

The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, in preparation for the August 2008 Summer Olympics, has issued two types of commemorative coins for circulation. One type will be legal tender in China, and include a set of two base metal coins. There is also a set of six precious metal coins. The base metal coins have a face value of 1 yuan each (C$0.14), while the precious metal coins will have a face value of either 10 yuan (C$1.41) or 150 yuan (C$21.21). Ten million of the base coins will be minted, featuring the emblem of the Beijing Games and an image of the National Stadium, which will be the venue for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Only 60,000 of the precious-metal coins are being made, in either gold or silver. They feature the logo along with a pair of traditional Chinese dragons, with some of the pictograms from the Beijing Games featuring on the reverse. Two more sets of coins are expected to be issued in 2007 and 2008 in the lead-up to the Games. The Canadian Mint is a sponsor of the 2010 Winter Games and will be issuing at least a commemorative Loonie, the nickname for the Canadian $1 coin, but the schedule is not yet known.

ABORIGINAL CHIEF DECLARES "MORATORIUM" ON 2010 GAMES

Chief Eric Joseph of Kingcome Inlet has reportedly told BC Premier Gordon Campbell that Joseph's aboriginal tribal council has declared a boycott of the 2010 Winter Olympics until a moratorium is in place on new fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago. The area is a jumble of rocky islands which almost join Vancouver Island to the British Columbian mainland. The issue of fish farms and related pollution has been around for about a decade. The comment was made during the annual general assembly of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, where Campbell had made an appearance.

RESOURCES

Here's a zoomable map of the Broughton Archipelago. The arrow marks the village of Sayward, which is about the centre of the archipelago. Kingcome Inlet is on the mainland across from the village of Port Hardy, to the northwest of Sayward:
tinyurl.com/nklpm

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 29, 2006

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1886
CITY OF VANCOUVER COMPLETES APPROVAL OF C$28 MILLION REFINANCING PACKAGE FOR SEVERAL 2010 FACILITIES

The City of Vancouver has completed, by a unanimous vote this afternoon, the second part of the two-step process to ensure several 2010 Olympic facilities being built by the City and its Park Board can be constructed at their higher costs totalling C$105.6 million.

The Park Board on Monday approved its portion of the C$28-million refinancing package at a meeting this afternoon following debate at the Standing Committee of Council on Planning and Environment. The complex and creative refinancing deal siphons funds from several future City and Park Board projects and cash flows to cover the additional money needed, as well as accepts C$10 million now from the 2010 Organizing Committee in exchange for looking after C$12.3 million in conversion costs later, all to keep the projects on time and on track. VANOC, all told, is to contribute C$43 million to the total. The C$10 million amount is the present value of the estimated cost of converting the facilities from their Olympic configuration to their long-term layout.

Several council members, such as Vision Vancouver's Tim Stephenson, likened the concept to Vancouver being put in the same position as Whistler, when it was asked whether it wanted to go ahead with the sledge hockey rink. Whistler last month decided to kill the sledge-hockey rink and VANOC rescheduled Paralympic curling to the new curling rink, and sledge hockey to UBC facilities.

They also wanted to know, given inflation, whether staff would be coming back. Deputy City manager Doug Rudberg said they've done their best to properly escalate the construction costs to 2010, but, as he put it, "there are no guarantees."

The ice rinks and pool attached to the curling rink are City of Vancouver projects, not VANOC's. NPA Vancouver councillor Peter Ladner, who moved that the refinancing package be approved, said, "We are jammed to some extent on this, but these are projects that we took on; VANOC did not take these on. To those who say that we are lavishing money on the Olympics and catering to the corporate elite, these are facilities that are, by our own choice, the most needed in the City. The are all east of Cambie Street. If we want to talk about making the city more socially sustainable, these are facilities that are going to be used by children, people who are working their way into the community from other countries, they will promote physical activity, health, community building, literacy and all those wonderful things that will ultimately prevent homelessness in the future.

The projects covered by the proposed arrangements are the new Hillcrest Arena, which is expected to be used for Olympic and Paralympic curling as well as Paralympic sledge hockey, and two community ice rinks -- Killarney and Trout Lake -- that are to be used as secondary arenas during the Olympics. The Hillcrest Arena is being designed to be built at the same time as a non-Olympic facility, the adjacent Percy Norman Aquatic Centre. These two are considered to be one project, as they'll be built simultaneously by the City and Parks Board, with some major funding and expertise from the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), and they use common heating and cooling systems. The Arena is due to converted after the 2010 Games to a variety of uses -- curling, a community centre and a new library branch, primarily.

The City says the curling rink and pool have also cleared the City's design panel process at a meeting last night.

A last-ditch amendment to the motion by councillor Stephenson to match an C$8.8 million portion of the refinancing package with a similar amount "for homelessness," was defeated, after Ladner called it a "cheap political trick."

RESOURCES

Our first and detailed story on this topic:

'Vancouver City and Parks Board staff get creative to fund C$28 million shortfall in several 2010 venues'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1874; Published on Thursday, September 21, 2006]

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 28, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1885

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC AT US MARKETER'S CONFERENCE FOR BEIJING SUMMER GAMES

VANOC is expected to give an overview presentation during the three-day conference now underway of marketers connected with supporting the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. The meeting of an estimated 120 organizations -- which include representatives of all the corporate sponsors, licensees and suppliers to the Chinese Games, as well as governments, IOC, IPC and other organizations connected with the Games -- is being held in Colorado Springs, Colorado until the 28th. VANOC's role is not expected to be large; the main focus of the conference is on activation of agreements with the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee. Among the companies in attendance are international sponsors Coca-Cola, Eastman Kodak, General Electric, Visa USA, Johnson & Johnson, as well as US Olympic Committee connections, such as Tyson Foods, Budweiser, Bank of America, The Home Depot, Kimberly-Clark, Nike, 24 Hour Fitness, Oroweat, Roots, Adecco and Amino Vital. Other topics on the agenda include the Beijing Olympic Committee games preparations and NBC’s 2008 Olympic Games presentation.

VANCOUVER MULLS POSSIBLITY OF ABORIGINAL NAME FOR ATHLETE VILLAGE-AREA ISLET

Vancouver City Councillor Elizabeth Ball has suggested that the small island that's to be built along the shoreline of the 2010 Olympic Athletes Village as part of the long-term redevelopment of the False Creek coastline be named "named in such a way as to honour the culture and history of the Coast Salish people." The Coast Salish (pronounced SAY-lish) is the general name for the group of aboriginal tribes that live on the southwest coast of BC. The small island, which will only be separated from the mainland at high tide, is part of the public space, and is being constructed to compensate for other changes to the shoreline in the area that affect fish habitat.

VANOC, COC CO-HOST QUEBEC GOLF FUNDRAISER

VANOC and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) will host the seventh annual Canadian Olympic Golf Tournament at the Club de golf Le Mirage in Terrebonne, Quebec on Monday. Proceeds from the golf tournament are to benefit the Canadian Olympic Foundation which provides direct support to athletes, coaches and national sport federations, as well as two COC intitiatives: Own The Podium 2010, for which VANOC is helping to raise C$55 million, and the Summer Olympics's Road To Excellence. The event will feature participation and appearances by some of Canada's most decorated Olympians including Eric Bedard (short track speed skating), Gaétan Boucher (long track speed skating, Marc Gagnon (short track speed skating), Pierre Harvey (cross-country skiing and cycling), Jennifer Heil and Philippe Laroche (freestyle skiing), Dominique Maltais (snowboard) and Mathieu Turcotte (short track speed skating). The tournament is expected to feature on-site Olympic-themed competitions and demonstrations, dinner at the Club de golf Le Mirage Clubhouse and two auctions, one silent and one live. There was something else about this golf tournament... what was it?... Oh yes, included are 18 holes of golf.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 28, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1884
2010 COMMITTEE BEGINS PROCESS OF DESIGNING THE MASCOTS FOR THE OLYMPIC AND THE PARALYMPIC GAMES

The the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has launched the process that will end up with a mascot for each set of Games next year. And even though there have been serious political efforts by some communities to get their concept chosen, only professionals will be involved in the process.

VANOC has issued a formal Request for Proposals proposals from "qualified professionals or companies specializing in illustration, animation, graphic design, fine arts or other related fields" for developing the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games mascots, from initial concept to final design. The closing date for proponents is November 1 at VANOC headquarters in Vancouver. VANOC adds that it wants proposals from those who are "passionate, talented and experienced."

A mascot design helps the Games sell literally millions of dollars worth of souvenir products and appears on a myriad of Games-related marketing collateral and event pageantry, such as the opening and closing ceremonies for both the Olympics and the Paralympics in turn.

Because of its importance to the Games and the pressures on getting a mascot selected, VANOC is upfront about saying that "Proponents are NOT to submit proposed Vancouver 2010 mascot designs, names, themes or concepts in connection with this RFP." That kind of detail will only be given to the company that wins the RFP. VANOC adds that "Any proposal that includes mascot designs, names, themes or concepts will not be considered." In fact, they say it "will be sealed in perpetuity, without review, and maintained in files that will not be accessible to any person involved in the mascots’ development."

VANOC has broken the development work into two phases. VANOC says the artist or VANOC can sub-contract some work if it is beyond the capacity or the skill set of the artist to do the whole project. VANOC may also choose more than one proponent to develop mascot concepts before it selects the final concepts and people to do the work. If a short list of artists are selected to develop and refine the initial concepts in Phase 1, each will be hired and paid by contract with VANOC for the work. Even though more than one proponent might be selected for the Phase 1 development and refinement of initial concepts, VANOC expects there will be only one finalist selected to continue with Phase 2 work. Regardless, all proponents are required to submit complete proposals for both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the project and specific deliverables during those phases [See BACKGROUND, below]

RESOURCES

The phases of the work:

Phase 1 may include a short list of artists, while Phase 2 will only involve the artist whose concept is selected for the final mascots, and there may be more than one artist and concept selected in the second phase.

PHASE 1: MASCOT CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT AND REFINEMENT

1. The short-listed artists will work with a team from VANOC led by Brand & Creative Services (B&CS), a function within VANOc.

2. B&CS will provide a detailed creative brief, providing all necessary background and information about the Vancouver 2010 brand (essence, positioning, personality, graphic identity, graphic standards, mascot objectives, creative and production considerations. The brief will also provide updated details on process and timelines.

3. During the creative development phase, VANOC will provide market ideas and insights received through the Internet and other research and communications channels. There could also be opportunities for the short-listed artists to gain additional brand and market information through VANOC, if it would add value to the creative development process.

4. The short-listed artists will present concepts and refinements to B&CS at various stages of the creative-development process for feedback and direction.

5. VANOC will select a short list of concepts for refinement and some exploration of the versions in different applications and formats. Shortlisted concepts will likely be consumer-tested.

6. Following the consumer testing, if it happens, VANOC will make its final selection and present the recommended concepts for all required approvals.

7. If a short list of artists was contracted to develop initial concepts, VANOC will end contracts with all of the artists whose concepts have not been short listed for further refinement under Phase 1 or selected as a mascot for finalization under Phase 2.

PHASE 2: FINALIZATION OF SELECTED MASCOTS

1. Upon final approval of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic mascots, VANOC will organize the mascots’ launch and the participation of the mascots’ artist or artists at the launch. All mascot final designs, artwork files and graphic standards will also be developed at this time.

2. Depending on the capacity and the skill set of the mascots’ artist, and other considerations, VANOC may provide or procure additional resources to develop the graphic standards, film animation, and other specialized mascot materials/formats. The artist can also recommend other artists or companies to do any work that might be subcontracted.

---

The deliverables of the work:

Phase 1: Mascot Concept Development

Development of at least three unique creative concepts for each of the Olympic and Paralympic Games mascots (six
concepts in total). The concepts can include more than one mascot for either of the Olympic or Paralympic Games.
(i.e. One mascot concept may include multiple “characters” such as the five Beijing 2008 Olympic Games mascots, or
the two Torino 2006 Olympic Games mascots

Concepts must reflect Vancouver 2010 brand and values, as well as the Olympic and Paralympic values (as provided by a VANOC creative brief that will be provided once selection of the artist-selection is done

Concepts must include the proposed mascot's name and the creative rationale, such as the mascots’ origin, history and personality

Concepts must be presented in both colour and black & white.

In addition to a core conceptual design, proposed mascots must be illustrated participating in the following winter sport
disciplines to demonstrate flexibility of concept:

-- Olympic Games mascot(s) must be presented participating in Alpine Skiing, Bobsleigh and Ice Hockey
-- Paralympic Games mascot(s) must be presented participating in Alpine Skiing, Wheelchair Curling and Ice Sledge Hockey

TIMING: Presentation of initial concepts is to be delivered six weeks after the delivery of the VANOC creative brief to the Artist

Phase 1. b) Refinement of Short-listed Mascot Concepts

Revised designs and upgrading the mascot names and stories based on VANOC’s short-listed selection and feedback

Explorations presenting short-listed mascots in the context of various applications and formats, for example:
-- Used within context of existing Vancouver 2010 branded collateral and communications
-- 2D animations, illustrating potential movement and expressions
-- 3D renderings, illustrating different angles of mascot

TIMING: Revisions will take place over the course of four weeks following the initial concepts presentation to VANOC

Phase 2 Deliverables

Phase 2 is in three parts:

a) Final Development and Design of Selected Mascots

Refinements to selected mascot designs, names and stories, as selected by VANOC

Production of final artwork files in .ai, .eps and .jpg format

Illustration of selected mascot designs in five to seven signature poses and 20 sport poses for each Winter Games discipline

Selection and development of mascot typography, if requested

TIMING: Finalization of selected mascot designs, characterization and artwork files will occur over an eight to 10 week period after VANOC has selected its final mascots from the short-listed concepts

2. b) Graphic Standards Manuals

Development of graphic standards manuals (GSM) for Olympic and Paralympic mascots

TIMING: Delivery of GSMs will occur 8 – 12 weeks after VANOC has approved final designs of selected mascots

2. c) Other work

This is a catch-all section as VANOC hasn't yet decided if there will be "other work". Such work, if required, is expected to be a written addendum or change order to the Contract, with work performed on a time and materials basis. In addition, it is expected that if approved by VANOC on a case by case basis, official Vancouver 2010 partners and licensees will have unique mascot design projects for which they will require the design services of the artist. Standard rates for each additional mascot illustration and other common applications will be established with the artist and incorporated into the contract.

===

Key dates in the process (which may be adjusted as things go):

November 1: RFP submission deadline
-- In November: VANOC interviews top proponents and checks references
-- In November: VANOC shortlistsartists(s) and finalizes contracts

December: VANOC briefs short-listed artists(s)
-- In December: Summer 2007 artists develop concepts in collaboration with VANOC.

2007 Final mascots are unveiled to public.

==

The first official mascot made an appearance at the 1972 Winter Games in Munich. Since then, mascots have become serious money-raiser for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Because the mascots are designed to bring humour and light-hearted fun to the Games experience, they are popular as souvenirs and for marketing purposes. The mascots help tell the unique story of each Games. They are often a reflection of the history, land and culture of the host region and country. And they also embody the ideals of Olympism and the Paralympic Movement, embodying the brand attributes of spirit of friendship, fair play and participation. The introduction of the mascot is one of the highlights in the lead-up to the Games. Past mascots have shown great ingenuity, imagination and artistry. From Munich’s dachshund Waldi to Montreal’s beaver Amik, early mascots were based on animals that were unique to the host countries. Barcelona’s Cobi, created by a designer named Mariscal for the 1992 Games, was followed by a variety of mascots, based on humans, animals and creatures, mythical and invented.

RESOURCES

RFP # 052 (available on BC Bid)
Closing Time: November 1, 2006, 2 pm Vancouver Time

Contact Person
Estella Campbell, Contract Administrator
Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and
Paralympic Winter Games
3585 Graveley St, Vancouver, BC V5K 5J5 Canada

Tel: 778 328 2010
Fax: 778 328 2011
E-mail: procurement@vancouver2010.com

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 28, 2006

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1883
2010 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE GOES ON OFFENSIVE AGAINST "NAYSAYERS" AND "ANTI-GAMES ACTIVISTS"

The Organizing Committee for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) today spoke out against a steady battering from critics about issues involving its ability to manage the delivery of the its major commitments.

In an unusual tactic for VANOC, it issued a prepared statement in which it responded "to the claims of anti-Games activists" by saying it was committed to "fiscal responsibility and environmental, social and economic sustainability in planning, building and staging the 2010 Games in Vancouver and Whistler."

VANOC CEO John Furlong said in the statement, "We accept that there will always be critics of our project; we would only hope that criticism will be constructive and truthful rather than political and destructive in nature. We owe it to the people of British Columbia and Canada to stay focused on organizing the best Games possible. We will not allow ourselves or this project to be undermined by naysayers who never have and likely never will support the Games. That said, we are proud of the programs we have in place to ensure accountability to the taxpayers of B.C. and Canada, and to achieve one of the most environmentally and socially responsible Games in Olympic and Paralympic history. We have also promised to deliver our venue program for less than the C$580 million capital budget, and to finish the venues well ahead of the Games. This will provide Canadian athletes with the maximum training advantage, and will help ensure a first place finish for Canada in 2010. We are on schedule to deliver on both of these commitments."

The VANOC statement says the organization continues to "deliver upon commitments in key areas where Canadians want and deserve a high degree of accountability."

These, it suggests, are sustainability:
VANOC Vice President of Sustainability, Linda Coady, is developing" a comprehensive program to achieve environmental, social and economic sustainability for the 2010 Games." VANOC expects to be issuing its first annual sustainability report before the end of next March. "The report will provide a detailed review of VANOC's performance on the full range of its sustainability commitments."

These, the statement says, include:

The Whistler Sliding Centre site "that has been designed to minimize the footprint on the landscape. Venue buildings at this and other sites have been designed to optimize energy performance and reduce energy demand. All waste wood from site clearing at Whistler was chipped and composted for re-use."

C$2 million dollars from Bell's Olympic sponsorship "has been committed to create economic opportunities for inner-city communities."

VANOC has awarded contracts to inner-city businesses in Vancouver "which include Mills Basics, Cook Studio and United We Can."

The statement says VANOC is also committed to "accountability and transparency" and gives these examples:

"VANOC has committed to the same level of financial accountability as a publicly traded company, and issues quarterly financial reports and audited annual financial reports." It notes that the first quarterly report was issued on June 14th, and "in accordance with general accounting reporting practices" it expects to issue the next quarterly report on October 25th.

VANOC says the organization's "primary areas of responsibility and accountability" are:

Building the Games venues on time and on budget within its C$580 million capital budget provided by government partners;

Raising the Games operating funds in the private sector through sponsorships, ticket sales and television broadcast revenues; and

"Staging a successful Games that leave a legacy for sport and the community for generations to come."

The statement also talked obliquely about the cost of security, which has become a favourite whip of Games critics who suggest the budget is too small, by saying, "The Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit, led by the RCMP, holds the responsibility for planning and executing Games security. The goal is to stage Games in 2010 that offer the absolute safety and security of all participants. The cost to provide Games time security was estimated at C$175 million in the 2002 Games bid. The final security budget will ultimately reflect the level of security required at Games time, and the measures necessary to ensure a safe and secure environment."

The statement also discussed what it calls "the success of other Games" by saying:

"The most relevant comparison to the 2010 Games are past Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and particularly those held in North America, including Lake Placid (1980), Calgary (1988) and Salt Lake (2002).

"The only other Canadian Winter Olympic Games (Calgary 1988), contributed more than C$1.4 billion to the Canadian economy in the lead up to the Games during the 1980s. Positive economic impacts were associated with capital facilities, enhanced business, tourism and sports opportunities, and extra employment/household income.

"In the end, the 1988 Olympic Winter Games recorded a profit that fuelled an endowment fund of more than C$60 million that is now worth C$170 million." It says the source of that information is the "Final Report of the Calgary 1988 Olympic Winter Games; VANOC Impact of North American Winter Games on Host Communities Study." Among other legacies, the statement says, "the 1988 Olympic Winter Games left a wealth of recreational and high performance sport infrastructure that was a major contributing factor to Canada's 24 medals at the Torino 2006 Games."

VANOC says it is currently undertaking "a comprehensive study into the long-term economic, social, educational, tourism, employment, recreational and high performance sport benefits of hosting Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in previous North American host communities", and that it expects to release the study in a few weeks.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 27, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1882
2010 COMMITTEE STILL INTERESTED IN CRUISE-SHIP IDEA AT SQUAMISH FOR GAMES ACCOMODATION

The executive vice president of Service Operations & Ceremonies for the 2010 Organizing Committee says the organization will continue to explore the idea of using a cruise ship berthed at Squamish to house 1,600 press, broadcast media "and/or other Vancouver 2010 clients during the 2010 Winter Games."

Terry Wright of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) confirmed the concept after word that the International Olympic Committee initially rebuffed the idea. "Cruise ship accommodation in Squamish is a creative and sustainable accommodation option," said Wright in a prepared statement. He added, "Squamish is the midpoint of the Olympic and Paralympic theatre and this unique accommodation option would create a hub of activity in Squamish linking the city venues in Vancouver with the mountain venues in Whistler."

VANOC introduced the concept at the IOC's Press Commission annual meeting in Beijing this week. The Commission is an advisory group for the IOC. VANOC says it will "review the concerns in the coming weeks while continuing to collaborate with the IOC to meet the needs of the press and all guests in 2010."

The ship would supplement the available accommodation in the Sea to Sky corridor for the Olympic and Paralympic "family", and VANOC is responsible for providing rooms. The "family" includes media, officials of the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee, representatives of various national Olympic Committees of nations that will be at the Games, officilas of the various international sport federations, various team coaches and support personnel, as well as representatives of sponsors.

VANOC says a cruise ship would provide "premier service and accommodation and guests would also be provided with transportation to and from the venues. The concept gives VANOC flexibility while reducing the complexity of building permanent or temporary accommodations. It is also an environmentally friendly option and supports VANOC's sustainability objectives."

Discussions with cruise ship lines have already begun.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 27, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1881

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

OLYMPIC VILLAGE STREET NAMES CONTESTED BY VANCOUVER COUNCILLORS

Vancouver City Council, faced with the requirement of approving the name of three new key streets in the 2010 Winter Olympics Athlete Village as Shipyard Avenue, Salt Avenue and Slipway Avenue, has deferred the decision to its October 17 meeting to give the Street Naming Committee a chance to consider the addition of some of councillors' favourite names. These include "Marine Workers Avenue" and several personal names of people that have had an effect on the City's recent development, such as "Walter Hardwick Avenue", "Jane Jacobs Avenue" and "Lillian Toews Avenue." The names have to be into the Street Naming Committee by October 3 so it can discuss them at its October 5th meeting. Part of the committee's process is to circulate potential names to various emergency services, such as fire, police and ambulance management, in case they have concerns about confusion by potential names with other commonly used names. For instance, there is already a Marine Drive in Vancouver; the idea of "Marine Workers Avenue" as being potentially confused with it during an emergency would be considered. City Councillor Raymond Louie, who proposed "Marine Workers Avenue" to replace the staff-recommended "Shipyard Avenue", pointed out that City Council doesn't often get the chance to name a street in the City, and "the names will last for centuries." Staff and the Street Naming Committee had made their recommendations because of the historical types of work done on the lands that are being rebuilt, and follows a similar pattern elsewhere on the south side of False Creek. Council unanimously approved a portion of the request by the staff: three existing streets will be extended northwards into the Village development and keep the same names: Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario Streets. These three were necessary to approve now because of timing issues to do with the development of the Village.

VANOC REPORTEDLY DISCUSSING WHISTLER BYLAW CHANGES TO FREE UP MORE ROOMS

The Vancouver Sun newspaper this morning reported that VANOC is still short about 1,300 short-term rooms in the Whistler area during the immediate lead-up and during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The apartment and hotel rooms, a number of which have already been accumulated by VANOC, would be used for media, VIPs and the like: those who are considered to be part of the "Olympic family" by VANOC, the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee. The 2010 Committee still has a number of options to provide sufficient rooms in the village of 10,000 and it has been talking to the municipal government staff about the possibility of temporarily relaxing the Village's bylaws that restrict short-term rentals to free up rooms in the Village's housing stock. Reporter Jeff Lee said VANOC had also proposed that in berth a cruise ship at the port community of Squamish, about an hour's drive from Whistler, to house the several thousand news media expected to cover the Games, but that the International Olympic Committee had rejected the concept as it would put the reporters and their support crews -- a highly important group to the IOC -- too far away from the Whistler venues, and would create other logistical difficulties.

RFP EXPECTED FOR SALT BUILDING USE AFTER 2010 GAMES

The City of Vancouver is expected to issue a formal Request for Proposals shortly to four groups that responded to an expression of interest in the legacy uses of the Salt Building, a heritage structure that will be a centrepiece of the 2010 Athlete's Village in southeast False Creek. The draft by-law that covers the area of the building allows for a variety of uses to occupy the signature building after the Games are finished, including commercial, institutional, recreational and cultural uses. The City is keeping its ownership of the building and intends to control its use after the Games through agreements with operators and tenants. Once it's chosen a company through the RFP process, it will work out the uses for it.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 27, 2006

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1880
VANCOUVER COUNCIL SQUEAKS OLYMPIC VILLAGE ALONG TIMELINE TO REZONING HEARING

The one vote majority that the Non Partisan Association party commands kept Vancouver City Council on a tight Olympic timeline tonight after an hour of debate over whether to send several key properties involved in the 2010 Olympic Athletes Village to a public hearing in preparation for rezoning.

The left wing Vision Vancouver opposition on the council, led by councillor Raymond Louie, time after time, question after question, attempted to persuade city staff and in particular the City's project manager for Southeast False Creek and Olympic Village, Jody Andrews, to reveal information about the Village's financial situation in advance of a detailed report now in the draft stage that is due to be made public by next Tuesday.

Council was working on a report by staff recommending that it stick to an extremely tight timeline for getting the Village built by sending to public hearing an application by Merrick Architecture on behalf of the Village's developer, Millennium Southeast False Creek Properties, for rezoning 51, 85 and 199 West 1st Avenue, 1599 -1651 Ontario Street, 1598-1650 Columbia Street and a portion of 215 West 1st Avenue. Those properties cover the main Olympic Village. The public hearing is scheduled for October 17. Millennium Southeast False Creek Properties is a subsidiary of Millennium Development, which won a formal Request for Proposals process earlier this year for the right to buy the property from the city and develop the buildings on it. The City is acting as its own public amenities developer and is in the process of preparing the site for construction. The buildings, primarily high-rise apartment-like structures, must be delivered to the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) by November 1, 2009.

However, Vision councillors Louie, George Chow, Heather Deal and Tim Stephenson, plus the philosophically aligned David Cadman, repeatedly said they wanted to have a look at the financials because the rezoning application included a request for what Louie estimated was an additional C$40 million of additional density in the Village to help pay for non-market housing requirements mandated earlier this year by Council in the legacy portion of the Village.

City manager Judy Rogers, who is also a director of VANOC representing the City, told council, "The rezoning submission from Millennium Southeast False Creek Properties meets the intent of the Official Development Plan (ODP) and, in fact, exceeds the ODP objectives in the areas of sustainability and modest market housing. It is worth noting that Millennium is committing to deliver LEED Gold for all its market buildings, instead of Silver as required by the ODP. Also, as Council instructed, Millennium and staff have prepared a creative solution for the delivery of modest market housing that would result in approximately 100 units of modest market housing in addition to the 250 units of affordable housing."

One small privately owned parcel just west of the key Salt Building feature, known as the Maywood Property, is also part of key area, but that parcel is on its own timeline and will be up for rezoning separately. The other properties involve six city blocks on 7.2 ha (18 acres) to be developed with a range of residential forms from three-storey townhouses to 13-storey apartment towers as well as a neighbourhood commercial centre, school -- which may or may not be built in time -- and a community centre.

It also includes a proposed neighbourhood commercial centre includes the three anchors -- a full-size grocery store (Parcel 9), a drug store (Parcel 10) and a liquor store (Parcel 6), as well as smaller areas that will house restaurants, cafes, various shops and services, such as banks and medical-dental offices. The commercial centre is located around the plaza just north of the Salt Building, and the Salt Building itself.

The Official Development Plan approved by the City last year expected that the rezoning site would have about 7,153 square metres (77,000 square feet) of commercial floor space allocated to the developer, not including commercial space on the public parcels. Millennium is proposing 5,912 m2 (63,640 sq. ft.) of neighbourhood commercial mixed with the housing, and that the remaining 1,245 m2 (13,400 sq. ft.) of commercial space allocated to the developer be available for residential.

The tug-of-war over where the proposed grocery store will be located has been resolved by moving it to Parcel 9, which borders on West 1st just east of the Salt Building. It had been in a parcel to the immediate north with the idea of increasing walking traffic in the central plaza, but it made truck and car traffic more difficult there.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 26, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1879

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

FIRST PART OF VANCOUVER 2010 VENUES REFINANCING APPROVED

There was debate, but in the end, the Vancouver Park Board last night voted to approve the first step in a two-step refinancing package that will enable Vancouver to cover inflation-fueld cost increases in the construction of the 2010 curling venue, and two secondary ice rinks that will also be used during the 2010 Winter Games. Vancouver City Council is expected to approve the second step of the package, at a meeting this afternoon.

DRURY TO CHAIR ALPINE CANADA

Toronto businessman and lifelong alpine ski enthusiast Reid Drury, who is also a founding partner of Polar Capital Corporation, has been elected the chairman of the Board of Directors of Alpine Canada, the national skiing sports governing organization. Druy, a former ski racer who has three children competing in the sport, was elected at the sport's annual general meeting over the weekend. Bob Ellard, a well-known athlete, and multi-sport builder was elected vice-chairman. Drury, with more than 20 years experience in private-equity investing, was also a senior executive of Telco Research Corporation and Speedware Corporation. He succeeds John Read of Calgary who served as Alpine Canada's chairman for the past two years. Ken Read, president of Alpine Canada, says, "The leadership of our board is vitally important to reaching our goal of making Canada a world leading alpine racing country by 2010." Drury says, "This is a critical four years leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics, and our Board intends to build on the momentum achieved... We are developing strong teams at all levels, stronger coaching and programs in Canada, a solid organization and the resources it takes to win."

VOLWEB CELEBRATES FIRST BIRTHDAY

VolWeb.ca, the website face of one aspect of 2010 Legacies Now's volunteer recruitment strategy, is a year old today. The concept is, in part, to improve the volunteer resumes of BC residents so that VANOC has a more experienced volunteer workforce from which to choose when it's main volunteer recruitment program begins next year, but it also has a longer-term strategy of being a volunteer clearinghouse for the province as a legacy of the Games. It reports it has registered about 1,300 volunteers and 460 organizations. It's goal is to register one million volunteers by 2012.

RESOURCES

Our story from last week that details the complex refinacing package:

'Vancouver City and Parks Board staff get creative to fund C$28 million shortfall in several 2010 venues'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1874; Published on Thursday, September 21, 2006]

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 26, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1840

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

LATEST ECONOMIC FORECAST SHOW VANOC'S CONSTRUCTION CLIMATE REMAINS STORMY

It won't come as any surprise to VANOC's construction management team that the latest issue of "Economic Analysis of B.C.", a periodic newsletter published by Credit Union Central of British Columbia, is forecasting continued strong pressures for the next two years on from labour and materials inflation in southwestern BC. "Construction, transportation, professional, technical and business support services will also make substantial contributions to the region’s economic growth," says the report, written by Central’s economist, Dave Hobden. The report also shows that the 2010 capital budget of C$580 million, or even accepting the BC Auditor General's controversial figure of C$2.5 billion in total Olympic taxpayer spending is not much of a driver for the construction boom. The report notes that, "As of June this year, there was more than C$43 billion in development projects in the Mainland-Southwest listed in the Major Projects Inventory of B.C.’s Ministry of Economic Development. That is up 14.5% from one year earlier, continuing a steady rise since 2003. Of these major projects, 55% are currently under construction and 42% are at some stage of proposal. Projects under construction have increased 26% in the past year, while proposed projects are up 3.7%. This suggests construction spending on major projects will continue to rise through 2008."

VANOC COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT GROWTH REDUCES REQUEST BACKLOG

VANOC's vice-president of Communications, Rene Smith-Valade, says her staff has now grown enough that it is starting to be able to deal with the significant range of demands for the department's services. In a sense, what she has to say about her own department is a microcosm of VANOC's exponential growth. "The challenge we've been facing [over the last two years] is being a very small team trying to do was deal with what was immediately a big network of communications, with all of our partners, our sponsors, our governments, our athlete organizations -- probably 20 of these partners. It's a tiny, little team, trying to communicate with all of them. As we add people now, we're getting better and better at doing [our job] with the network on a regular basis. But you know what's fun? Every new person brings new energy, so each person who arrives just raises it up higher because they are ready to be there. The competition for the jobs is tight, usually, so once a person arrives, they feel like they've won a lottery, and their arrival re-energizes everyone."

RBC NAMES WINTER OLYMPIANS FOR MARKETING PROGRAM

RBC, which is the financial sponsor of the 2010 Winter Olympics, today listed the 20 Olympians and Paralympians the financial giant will support for the next 12 months through its annual "RBC Olympians" program. RBC gives the athletes it selects a job for a year, with enough flexibility in the schedule for them to train, if they're still active in getting ready for the next set of Olympic or Paralympic Games, or get new job skills if they've recently retired. In addition, the people selected will make appearances representing RBC at its community relations events, as well as meet with RBC staff and selected clients "to help raise awareness and support for amateur sport." This year's crop include Canadian winter athletes Anne-Marie Lefrançois, alpine skiing, 2002 retired Olympian; Alexa Loo, snowboard, 2006 Olympian; Kristi Richards, freestyle ski, 2006 Olympian; Colleen Sostorics, ice hockey, gold medallist and 2006 Olympian; Jennifer Botterill, ice hockey, gold medallist and 2006 Olympian; Sami Jo Small, a member of the 2006 gold medal Canadian Women's hockey team; Martine Albert, biathlon, 2006 Olympian; Dominique Maltais, snowboarding, bronze medallist -- 2006 Olympian; and Marc-Andre Moreau, freestyle ski, 2006 Olympian. The rest of those selected were connected with summer Olympic sports.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 26, 2006

Monday, September 25, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1878

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANCOUVER ISLAND REPS MEET WITH TAIWANESE OLYMPIC OFFICIALS

A delegation representing the Comox and Courtney area of central Vancouver Island reportedly met earlier this month with the Taiwanese International Olympic Committee while on an investment tour of Taiwan. The meeting was held to discuss the merits of the nearby Mt. Washington Ski Resort as a possible location for the Taiwanese national Olympic team to train their skating and Nordic sections. John Watson, the region's Economic Development Officer, reports, “The Comox Valley has a long and warm cultural relationship with the Taiwanese, and to have their team consider the Comox Valley in the lead-up to 2010 is significant.” Last month, technical evaluation representatives of Sweden's national Olympic winter team toured the Mt. Washington area.

NDP CALLS ON VANOC TO PAY FOR "OVER-RUNS"

The BC New Democratic opposition party's critic of the BC government's responsibilities to host the 2010 Olympic Games is claiming the "over-runs", as he puts it, of the Olympics are now more than C$70 million and that VANOC should pay for them. He told a local radio station that, "They have a tremendous opportunity to raise revenue through sponsorship and many other avenues that VANOC has available to them, so they should come to the plate. They are the ones who should be held responsible to pay for the cost overruns rather than going after the taxpayers over and over again." The higher construction cost numbers, which are mostly restatements of 2002 and 2003 budgets expressed in 2007 or 2008 dollars after inflation and reduced construction scope has been factored in, have been emerging in batches over the last few months.

SIMARD, GRANDI, WOOLSTENCROFT AND TAYLOR NAMED TOP CANADIAN SKI ATHLETES

Genevieve Simard of Val-Morin, Quebec, and Thomas Grandi of Canmore, Alberta, were named Canadian Alpine Ski Team athletes of the year at the annual Alpine Canada Alpin congress Saturday. Canadian Disabled Alpine Ski Team athletes Lauren Woolstencroft of Victoria, British Columbia and Calgary Alberta, and guide Bobby Taylor of Vancouver, BC, were also honoured for their performances last season. The awards were given out at the Alpine Canada Congress and Annual General Meeting in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 25, 2006

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1877
NEW PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL TOWER TO HAVE COMMANDING VIEW OF VANCOUVER OLYMPIC VILLAGE ACTION

A new privately owned high-rise apartment complex with retail along the bottom is expected to provide a front-row seat on the activities of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Athletes Village is to be built just across the street from the the Village's main entrance.

The project is one of the earliest ripple effects of the City of Vancouver's decision to turn the seedy light-industrial area of southeast False Creek into a modern neighbourhood, with the Olympic Village as its core, but there are five other major residential developments in the pipeline for the area.

Vancouver-based Beedie Development, which is better known for industrial developments but has begun expanding into residential, intends to build the complex, whose primary tower is 13 storeys, in time for the opening of the Games and, as long as the Village's current security line stays put along Quebec Street, the 150 apartments will be occupied while the Village is open. The architects are Chris Dikeakos and John Clark, CDA Architects.

City planning analyst Hugo Blomfield says, however, that the RCMP, which are in charge of the Village's security arrangements, have told the developer that if they're forced to expand the security perimeter eastward to Main Street, which would include the building, they won't allow it to be occupied before the Games are over and the Village has shut down, in March, 2010. There is no date by which the security line will be fixed; its location will depend on the RCMP's threat assessment between now and the end of the Games.

The complex also has an eight-storey section on Main street that has commercial space at street level -- which will be its address: 1695 Main Street -- and a six-storey building along First Avenue. It has a total floor-space ratio of 3.5 and 179 parking spaces.

A number of environmental measures are also proposed for the structure, including "green" roofs, on-site storm water management, water-efficient landscaping and a building design that tries to optimize energy use; these are aims of the City in the area.

Blomfield says the City has scheduled an informal public meeting next Thursday for comments on the project, which is part of the property's rezoning process. A portion of the area is currently occupied by a Burger King fast-food restaurant and a video-rental store.

Other private-land developments in the area that surrounds the Village or are nearby, and which are moving through the various regulatory approval processes: 360 West First Avenue -- A new 13-storey apartment building with a three-storey townhouse building; 311 West 2nd Avenue -- A new nine-storey and a new five-storey residential complex with live/work apartments along the street level; 201 West 2nd Avenue -- Two new apartment buildings, the tallest is 16-storeys, that will have retail and commercial along the street on West 2nd, and live-work apartments on Cook Street; 102-160 West First Avenue -- A complex of four new apartment buildings, the tallest of which is 15 storeys. It will also provide storage space the Playhouse Theatre Company; and a complex with three addresses -- 59 West First Avenue, 68 West 2nd Avenue and 29 East 1st Avenue. The tallest of these is expected to be 15 storeys, with live-work studios along the street on 2nd Avenue, and commercial sections on Manitoba Street.

RESOURCES

The Beedie Group
www.beediegroup.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 22, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1876

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

RICHMOND UNION USES VANOC-CITY AGREEMENT AS LEVERAGE IN TALKS FOR NEW CONTRACT

The union that represents about 1,000 municipal workers in Richmond, where the local government is supervising the construction of a sports multiplex that will hold the 2010 speedskating oval, is using some clauses in VANOC's venue agreement with Richmond as leverage in negotiating a new union contract to replace the one that expires in December. Dave Shapiro, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees's Local 394, also represents about 360 outside workers. Shapiro says that one of the Venue Agreement clauses requires Richmond to do its best to "prohibit strikes and/or lockouts during any period that would include the Games exclusive-use period." The Exclusive Use period starts in November, 2009 and goes to March 31, 2010. It allows VANOC to set up the sports complex for use as an Olympic venue, giving it the look and feel of the Games and setting up such things as security, ticketing, sponsorship concessions, broadcast facilities, computer and communications networking, and the like, then run the competitions, and then remove the Olympic overlay. Other clauses, he says, require city staff to work at the Olympic oval during the period. Still other paragraphs agree to allow volunteers and third-party contractors to work in the multiplex. Shapiro, who wasn't happy that he had to find out officially about the wording of the agreement through access to information laws, said in June that his union doesn't intend to cause labour problems during the Olympics. The union is also now going through the formal grievance process, alleging the Venue Agreement affected the union's contractual relationship between the city and the union.

NEW STREET NAMES PROPOSED FOR VANCOUVER OLYMPIC ATHLETE VILLAGE

Vancouver City Council on Tuesday is expected to confirm the working names of three new streets that are being created in the new 2010 Vancouver Olympic Athlete Village. They are: The north/south street located east of the Salt Building, is to be named Slipway Street, to recognize the shipbuilding industry connection in the area. Slipways were located in a north/south direction in the shipbuilding yards in that area. The east/west street just north of First Avenue is to be named Salt Avenue as a reference to the former use of the signature heritage Salt Building at 85 West First Avenue. And, the east/west street nearest to False Creek is to be named Shipyard Avenue to commemorate one of the historical uses of the area, and to represent one of the three neighbourhoods set up during creation last year in the Official Development Plan. The neighbourhood to the east of that is to be called 'Railyard' and 'Worksyard' is the nickname for the neighbourhood that will be built after 2010, is to the west. City staff, architects and engineers working on the project have been using the names informally for several months.

WADA ISN'T HAPPY WITH LOW-OXYGEN TRAINING, BUT IT'S OK FOR ATHLETES FOR NOW

The Executive Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency, meeting in Montreal, has approved the recommendation of its own scientific committees that it keep artificially-induced hypoxic conditions off the 2007 list of things that it prohibits Olympic athletes from doing. Lots of athletes, both Olympic and non-Olympic, use hypoxia training. WADA's scientific committees -- Health, Medical & Research, and Lis -- and its Ethical Issues Review Panel spent quite a while reviewing scientific studies and talking to various experts about using artificial low-oxygen training, similar to the kind of conditions found atop mountainous are high-plateau locations. The committees found that the method was, in fact, performance enhancing and that raised some concerns and determined that the method was contrary to the spirit of sport, but but was inconclusive about the method's threat to athlete health, All three conditions have to be present for a process or a substance to be automatically placed on the banned list. A substance or method may be added to the Prohibited List if it meets two of these three criteria, but it's not automatically required to be there. Dick Pound, who runs WADA and is a director of the 2010 Games Board, says, "While we do not deem this method appropriate for inclusion on the List at this time, we still wish to express the concern that, in addition to the results varying individually from case to case, use of this method may pose health risks if not properly implemented and under medical supervision." That's not quite the end of the controversy though. Executive Committee members also suggested that the International Olympic Committee's Medical Commission look into the matter for a medical consideration of the method's impact on athlete health.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 21, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government
VANOC| #1875
VANCOUVER CITY INITIALS 2010 BRAND LICENSING DEAL WITH VANOC

Vancouver City Council is expected to approve a brand licensing agreement with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) at its next meeting on Tuesday.

The “Non-Commercial Use Agreement," as it's called, allows the City to use the VANOC's logo and other brands as a part of civic business. As well, there's an administrative process being set up to approve each application of the brands, as well as to monitor the overall usage. The Agreement also allows Vancouver Park Board, the Vancouver Police Department and the Vancouver Public Library to use the brands. The Agreement allows the city to use the brands on business cards, letterhead, banners, signage, posters, publications, merchandise and gifts -- such as lapel pins or umbrellas -- and specific types of uniforms,

Over the past several months, four governments involved in hosting the Games -- the federal and provincial governments, plus those of Whistler and Vancouver -- have been negotiating with VANOC and, through VANOC, with the International Olympic Committee, for the necessary permission to use the brands in a non-commercial way in the lead up to and during the 2010 Winter Games. Since millions of dollars rides on the use of the brands from commercial sponsors, the use is aggressively controlled by the IOC and VANOC to protect the value of the brands, which are owned by IOC and the Canadian Olympic Committee. This revenue contributes to a large part of the Games operating costs.

In Vancouver's case, the main logo will be a vertical blue box with the VANOC emblem in the middle. In the blue panel above the logo, is the city's name; in the blue panel below the logo are the words, in white, "Host City". As a mark, it says "institutional" pretty clearly.

The City's Corporate Communications Division is now developing a strategic plan for how the brands will be used by the City. In addition to recommending actual uses or applications, the plan is expected to also recommend a timeline that will see a "measured but increasing use: of the brands as 2010 nears. The Division also expects to work with the VPB, VPD and VPL to ensure that their use of the brands follows suit. The timeline is required because VANOC's marketing functions don't want to over-saturate the market until the Games are near.

The Agreement also sets out a recognition plan. Vancouver and the other governments are expecting VANOC to recognize them for their contributions to deliver the 2010 Winter Games by including the logos on VANOC-controlled signage, media releases, advertisements and invitations. There is also a process for acquiring merchandise or services from VANOC's licensees, and a process that allows the City staff to work with VANOC to create the “Look of the City” in a manner that uses the context of the “Look of the Games” that VANOC will create around the Olympic and Paralympic venues.

Dave Rudberg, the City's general manager of Olympic and Paralympic Operations, will have the overall control of the brand usage by the City and workshops are to be held with City staff to brief them on what they can and can't do with the logos or word marks.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 21, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1874
VANCOUVER CITY AND PARKS BOARD STAFF GET CREATIVE TO FUND C$28 MILLION SHORTFALL IN SEVERAL 2010 VENUES

Vancouver City planners report that the projected cost of several Olympic and Paralympic venues in which the Vancouver Parks Board is involved will likely be between C$28.1 million and C$28.8 million more than expected.

Faced with the inflation-fueled shortfall in funding the venues, staff are expected to ask City Council and Vancouver Parks Board trustees, in the next week or two, to approve a complex and creative refinancing deal that siphons funds from several future City and Park Board projects and cash flows, as well as add money now from the 2010 Organizing Committee in exchange for looking after conversion costs later, all to keep the projects on time and on track.

The first part of the two-stage approval process is the Park Board's decision on its share of the new funding, which is expected to come at a trustee meeting Monday night. Assuming that goes according to plan, Vancouver City Council would be asked to finalize the refinancing on September 28.

Staff point out that there is still a considerable benefit for going ahead with the projects even though they cost more money. Vancouver would end up with about C$105 million worth of planned infrastructure improvement, but VANOC, through money coming from provincial and federal funds, would pay 41% of the cost, and the City gets the projects sooner, rather than later.

The projects covered by the proposed arrangements are the new Hillcrest Arena, which is expected to be used for Olympic and Paralympic curling as well as Paralympic sledge hockey, and two community ice rinks -- Killarney and Trout Lake -- that are to be used as secondary arenas for the Olympics. The Hillcrest Arena is being designed to be built at the same time as a non-Olympic facility, the adjacent Percy Norman Aquatic Centre. These two are considered to be one project, as they'll be built simultaneously by the City and Parks Board, with some major funding and expertise from the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), and they use common heating and cooling systems. The Arena is due to converted after the 2010 Games to a variety of uses -- curling, a community centre and a new library branch, primarily.

The estimated cost in 2008 dollars -- which would be about mid-point in their construction during a time when construction inflation is running about 9% per year in the region -- is expected to be C$105.6 million for the venues and the pool. VANOC had earlier agreed to provide the City and Parks Board a total of C$33 million towards the work done on the facilities except for the swimming pool, but has now agreed to chip in an extra C$10 million with some strings attached, and City taxpayers, in a special capital plan vote, agreed to pay a total of C$34.5 million. That means only C$79.9 million of the overall costs are covered by existing funding arrangements.

Documents dealing the refinancing plant to deal with the C$28.1 million shortfall have been prepared by the City's General Manager of 2010 Games Operations and the Parks Board's General Manager of Parks and Recreation, with input from the City's Director of Finance and the City Manager to the City's Planning and Environment Committee. In it, the City Manager Judy Rogers, who is the City's appointee on the Board of VANOC, says, "The facilities... are the primary legacies that will remain with the City once the 2010 Games are completed... Faced with increasing costs for the City-funded portion of these facilities, and with a request from VANOC for funding support for the Curling Venue... Council has difficult choices to make."

The options primarily involve various combinations of going ahead with all of some of the projects as planned, and covering various sized shortfalls by pulling funds from other proposed capital projects, inter agency borrowings, taking on more risk in exchange for money up front that can be used as a sinking fund to pay for conversion of the Hillcrest Arena complex by the City itself. Some of these options could have the effect of forcing VANOC to move a venue elsewhere.

However the staff are offering a plan for the City Council and Parks Board trustees to approve which would see all the venues go ahead as planned, providing they are willing to approve a financing plan that could make quite a few City taxpayers annoyed.

The plan would have the City:

Contribute C$8.2 million to VANOC towards the construction of Hillcrest Arena. Here's where that money comes from -- C$2.3 million for the new Hillcrest Branch Library as a loan from the City's Capital Financing Fund, to be repaid by an increase in funding in the operating budget and subject to the city putting a funding request for the new Hillcrest Branch Library on its 2009 – 2011 Capital Plan planning process as a priority; and C$5.9 million would be another loan from the Capital Financing Fund, to be repaid from unencumbered revenues in the Park Board's operating budgets, beginning in 2010, when some unrelated loans will have been repaid, freeing up discretionary cash flow. In addition this contribution would be conditional: that VANOC contribute at least C38 million, and any further design or construction savings that are identified as the process continues accrue to the City;

An additional C$10.46 million (including about C$400,000 from one of the capital loans above) for the aquatic centre bringing its total allocation to C$29.96 million. The C$10.46 million would be a loan from the Capital Financing Fund to be repaid from "unencumbered revenues in the Park Board Operating Budget beginning in 2010" and continuing for about 10 years:

An internal loan of C$1 million, also from the Capital Financing Fund, so the LEED Gold environmental rating for the curling/aquatic centre complex can be achieved, instead of the usual Silver, with about C$600,000 of that to be paid to VANOC and the remaining C$400,000 added to the project budget of the Aquatic Centre. This "advance", would be repaid by the City's Park Board and Library Board from "avoided energy costs" following conversion of the facility after the 2010 Games:

Assume VANOC's responsibility for converting the Hillcrest Centre to its post-Games configuration at a cost estimated at C$12.35 million in 2010 dollars, on the condition that VANOC give the City C$10.0 million, which is the present value of that future expenditure.

Approve moving C$10.46 million, including the C$400,000 noted above, to the aquatic centre project, bringing the total allocation to C$29.96 million. That C$10.46 million would be a loan from the Capital Financing Fund to be repaid from "unencumbered revenues in the Park Board Operating Budget beginning in 2010."

Approve additional funding of C$6.5 million -- and that may yet change as it's subject to final design and tendering -- to complete the replacement of both Killarney and Trout Lake community ice rinks in time for the 2010 Games, bringing the total cost to C$26.5 million. Here's where that money comes from: C$2 million from a "reallocation" of Park Board funding in the 2006 – 2008 Capital Plan; C$2 million from the i"nflation adjustment provision" in that Capital Plan; and C$2.5 million as a loan from the Capital Financing Fund, also to be repaid from the "unencumbered revenues" in the Park Board Operating Budget beginning in
2010,

The Vancouver Park Board's contribution to the projects would total C$21.5 million which, in broad terms, comes from a C$1 million LEED Gold advance, C$2 million from a "reallocation" of priorities in the Board's 2006 – 2008 Capital Plan earlier approved by voters, and bridge financing of pools, rinks and legacy allowances for the rest. The reallocations in the capital plan involved a host of items, such as C$100,000 from improvements to Stanley Park, C$100,000 in major community centre maintenance, C$75,000 in fixing or replacing roofs of Parks Board buildings, and even C$75,000 that was to go to painting buildings. More than half, however, about C$1.5 million would come from plans to delay demolition and field costs associated with the Hillcrest project until after 2010, when some additional payments on unrelated projects end and Park Board's cash flow correspondingly increases.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 21, 2006

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1873
2010 BOARD CHAIRMAN SAYS VANOC'S FOCUS IS ONLY ON TWO NUMBERS

The chair of the Board of Directors for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) says that there are only two budget numbers that VANOC is paying attention to, and those are the ones for which it is accountable.

Jack Poole, who has a long history in major real estate development in British Columbia, says the two numbers are those of the capital and operating budgets, which are kept separate in VANOC's accounting system. The capital budget has been set at C$580 million, and VANOC is expected to publish the operating budget, roughly C$1.7 billion, in late November or December.

Poole made his comments amidst a storm of comments and commentary that followed the release of the a report by BC Auditor General Arn van Iersel last week into government costs and cost accounting of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Much of the debate has been over what is, or what should be, defined as an Olympic-related project or service, such as a major upgrade to the Sea to Sky highway between West Vancouver and Whistler, expenditures connected with the rapid transit line under construction between Vancouver, Richmond and the Vancouver International Airport (the RAV line), or the expansion of the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre, which is to host VANOC's international media centre from the last half of 2009 to the late spring of 2010.

"The infrastructure projects that are underway by the provincial government -- while as a taxpayer, I'm delighted to see them, and they're all helpful to different degrees to the Games -- but we're not accountable in any way for them. Frankly, if we were to be given some credit for the Sea to Sky highway, and the RAV line and the convention centre, I'd wear that badge proudly. But it's the province that decided to proceed with them."

Poole concedes he was taken aback by the Auditor General's report. "I was a little surprised that [van Iersel] would account for them that way, but I never get fussed by the accounting treatment for things. For me, the Sea to Sky highway is more important for what it will do for this region. I think it's the most well-executed P3 [public-private partnership] public works project that we've seen in the country. It is clean, it is professional, it is user-friendly, it's ahead of schedule and under budget. I think it's time people started talking about our wins; it's easy to give lots of negatives."

Poole notes there has been lots of talk about how hard it is to get construction companies, and how labour and materials shortages have contributed to a rise in the costs of commercial and industrial construction. "It's an exciting cycle that we're in. We have virtually full employment. It's a wonderful cycle. It's challenging, but it's a good problem for BC to have. Throw the country into a recession, and sure, we could build the Games for less. This cycle, this prosperity. Look what it's done for our governments revenues; they're soaring. You can give us some credit for that. If the accounting were properly done, the new government revenues may well pay for the total investment in the Games even before they're done. No one denies that."

Poole says cities and their countries compete so hard to host a set of Olympic Games now because, "it's the return on investment proposition for them. It's the tradition in the Olympics that taxpayers pay for the long-term sports venues, and the private sector looks after everything else. And the governments get their money back because they tax the hell out of everything. It's actually a good story, but we're going to be a visible target for everybody from now until 2010."

The Board chair says, however, that he and van Iersel agree that VANOC must always work hard to deal with the risk management that accompanies each of the venues, just as the concept does for every real estate project. He says that VANOC has been doing just that long before the consultant reports commissioned by the federal and provincial governments last spring commented on it as well. "Of course, we have no difference of opinion on that."

And what about the recommendation that, as Poole puts it, VANOC have "construction czar" to oversee all of Olympics construction work. "We engaged one some time ago [for VANOC's venues]. Dan Doyle [Executive Vice President, Construction], he's the best in the business." Poole says that most of the issues that were identified in the review reports "have already been dealt with. We're on the same page now."

Poole says he doesn't want to give the impression that he's minimizing the job that VANOC has left to do, "There are going to be a lot of twists and turns before we get this project [the Olympics and Paralympic Games] home, but we're absolutely comfortable now that we've got the tools to bring the project in under the C$580 million."

Poole says the concept of bringing buildings in for a specific amount of money is not new to either him or VANOC's construction team. "If you're constructing a building, and you've got equity and mortgage financing, and that's all you've got, then you have to complete it for that. And you don't know, at the very beginning, exactly all that you have to do. You have to react, and respond and adjust, and in the end, the cash in and the cash out have to balance. The Olympics are no different."

Meanwhile, Poole, noting that VANOC's first public business plan is expected to be presented to the Board at its November meeting -- "this is the serious one," he says -- it will be a major tool for use in the negotiations VANOC has yet to have with the International Olympic Committee over cost-sharing the revenues from sponsorship and broadcast revenues it has negotiated in the sales of rights packages. The VANOC executive management team spent much of the first part of this month going through the first major draft of the business plan with its middle managers.

Poole says the IOC revenue talks won't take place until next year, so while the November business plan should provide a good look at operational costs of delivering the Games, revenues are still not fixed. Poole says VANOC is holding off on the revenue talks for good reasons. "We don't want to the IOC until we're comfortable, and the Board has basically signed off on what the operating budget's going to be. We don't want to go to it until we have the whole story. Essentially, we can only go to them once. But it will still be cash in, cash out. Once we know what the cash out is expected to be, we'll know what the cash in should be, with some flexibility to fine tune it and take some of the bells and whistles out if we have to. The first thing we need to decide is what the costs are likely to be to get us through to the end of 2010, and then we'll know what to ask the IOC to contribute to balance that."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 20, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1872

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

MEDIA REACTION TO BC AUDITOR GENERAL'S REPORT STRONG, WIDESPREAD

VANOC executives and the BC government have both been under quite a bit of political and media pressure and editorial complaint since the release of the Auditor General's report last Thursday. Two of the BC opposition-party leaders -- the New Democratic Party's Carole James and the BC Green Party's Adriane Carr -- have each called for the resignation of VANOC CEO John Furlong and, in James's case, the resignation of the head of the Finance Committee in VANOC's Board of Directors, Ken Dobell, a BC government appointee. It's been getting a fair amount of media play, but much more widespread are the editorials and media commentary that are essentially saying the true cost of the Games has ballooned from C$580 million to C$2.5 billion. The former figure is VANOC's capital budget, the latter figure is the calculation by the BC Auditor General of all Canadian taxpayer-related costs of capital projects and government operations -- federal, provincial and municipal -- that the Auditor General connected in various way to the 2010 Games. The stories about the costing debate, in which the numbers have been used as direct comparisons of how the cost of the Games have either changed or been "hidden" have been carried in news media throughout North America and Europe.

BC GOVERNMENT HOLDS FIRM ON OLYMPIC DEFINITIONS

Both BC Premier Gordon Campbell yesterday and his provincial Finance minister, Carole Taylor today, are firmly of the opinion that BC auditor-general Arn van Iersel should not have included items such as the rapid transit line station that is to be built at the south end of the Cambie Bridge in Vancouver, nor the Sea-to-Sky highway upgrade as an Olympic cost. The BC cabinet member in charge of BC's Olympic responsibilities, Colin Hansen, made similar comments last week as report was released. Premier Campbell said the transit station will be used to service a new Vancouver neighbourhood that won't be developed until after the 2010 Games are finished, and that before the 2010 Bid was considered, Victoria had planned to upgrade the highway, which also services Squamish and Pemberton as well as Whistler and West Vancouver, by 2012, that it had simply advanced the timing of what it was going to do anyway. Taylor, as she answered questions following presentation of the province's first-quarter report, said, the Auditor General has not identified any new or unbudgeted costs related to the Olympics. "The Sea-to-Sky, full cost C$1.983 billion, that's in the budget," Taylor said. "The C$600 million, which is the cost of actually presenting the Games, is in the budget. The discussion that's been going on is where in the budget. He would prefer to see it all in one place and labeled Olympics, and the government believes that Olympics is the label for putting on [presenting] the Olympics." van Iersel also estimated the BC government had foregone revenue of about C$150 million by not setting up hedging accounts to offset the quickly changing relationship between the Canadian and US dollar, since Games-related revenues from broadcasting and sponsorships were to be paid in US currency. Taylor said if the Finance department advised VANOC on hedging, which it had not, the large increase in the Canadian dollar value that occurred would not have been anticipated. The ministry forecast at the time was for the dollar to climb to US$0.68, not the more than US$0.89 it has reached, she said.

VANCOUVER CITY STAFF REPORTEDLY WORKING ON PROPOSAL TO ADD DENSITY TO OLYMPIC VILLAGE

The Vancouver Sun's city hall reporter, Frances Bula, reports today that there may be more density allotted to the Vancouver Olympic Athlete Village, the buildings of which are being built by the developer, the Millennium Group. "As for the 'modest market' housing, the one-third of housing that was supposed to be for Vancouver's middle-income residents: it's not going to be one-third. And the 100-150 units out of the 1,100 are only going to happen because because city staff are preparing to ask council to allow an extra 90,000 square feet of density -- worth close to C$20 million at the price Millennium paid -- to make it economically possible to build them. That's in spite of what everyone agrees is an all-out Millennium effort to find creative solutions and to kick in some of its own profit. That potential deal got only narrow approval from the [City's] urban design panel, in a 4-3 vote, and is raising concern from some critics that it will mean altering the feel of the development as more density is shoehorned in." Meanwhile, Merrick Architecture of Vancouver will be working on some of the residential buildings on the site that will house athletes, Robert A.M. Stern, a New York architect is to build the most prominent residential building on the site, and well-known Vancouver architect Arthur Erickson is expected to design the community centre, which will be used by VANOC during the 2010 Games for the main building where athletes, VIPs and broadcasters will be meeting.

RESOURCES

Merrick Architecture
www.merrickarch.com/

Robert A.M. Stern Architects:
www.ramsa.com/

Arthur Erickson:
www.arthurerickson.com/

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 20, 2006

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1871

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC URGES BUSINESS IN CANADA TO SUPPORT 2010

VANOC CEO John Furlong has reportedly urged business across the country to become involved in the support of the 2010 Winter Games. He was speaking in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on Monday as a keynote speaker at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting. His comments were noted by local reporters, who quoted him as saying, "We need to somehow really strike a connection with every citizen. We need Canadians to connect with this in a way that will genuinely improve our country."

2010 FIGURE-SKATING QUALIFIER TO BE HELD IN LOS ANGELES

The International Skating Union today awarded the Staples Centre in Los Angeles as the location of the 2009 world championships for figure skating, which will serve as a qualifier for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Placements at worlds will determine how many spots a country gets for the Winter Games. The 2009 worlds will be held March 23-29. Los Angeles defeated bids from Helsinki, Finland, and Budapest, Hungary.

CANADIAN SKIERS RAISE C$50,000 IN GOLF TOURNAMENT

Alpine Canada and Alberta Alpine, raised more than C$50,000 during the 11th Annual Quest for Gold Golf Tournament in Calgary, Alberta over the weekend according to organizers. About 150 golfers were involved. The money is distributed to the Canadian Alpine Ski Team, the Canadian Disabled Alpine Ski Team, ACA’s National Development programs as well as Alberta Alpine Ski Association. Alpine Canada is the governing ski body in the country. The sponsor list included General Motors, Trump Vegas, Nike, West Jet, Jones Brown, Husky Energy, Peak Photography, Ski Canada Magazine, Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, Canadian Pacific Railway, Raymond James, Fort Chicago, A-1 Signs, the Lake Louise Winterstart World Cup, CBRE and Coca-Cola Bottling Company.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 19, 2006

Monday, September 18, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |General| #1870
NEW SURVEY SHOWS BC'S NOT SURPRISED BY AUDITOR GENERAL'S 2010 NUMBERS, BUT OK WITH GAMES MANAGEMENT

A poll of British Columbians by the survey firm Mustel Group about how people felt about last week's Auditor General’s report of the 2010 Olympics reveals:

A majority of BC adults expect the Olympics to go "over budget" (78% say they are “not very” or “not at all confident” the Games will stay within budget).

Residents tend to be confident in the way the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) is managing the Games, and they also expressed confidence in the provincial government, federal government, as well as the Auditor General in their respective roles in the Games.

If spending exceeds the budget, residents would prefer government to contribute additional funds (55%) than to scale back or eliminate venues (39%, with 6% undecided).

Opinions are more divided on the issue of whether such projects as improvements to the Sea-to-Sky Highway should be included in the Olympics’ budget, but a greater proportion (53%) believe these should be excluded from the budget rather than included (43% with 4% undecided).

Opinions overall are consistent across the province and across various demographic segments, except that residents 55 years and older are more concerned about budget overruns, less supportive of providing additional funding, and less confident in all parties involved in the games. However, they tend to believe that additional projects, such as the highway improvements should not be included in the Olympics budget.

The poll was taken just after the Auditor General's report was released last Thursday; it was commissioned by a Vancouver TV station and a radio station.

RESOURCES

Interview Dates: September 15 - 17, 2006
Sample Size: 500 random telephone interviews
Methodology: Random sample of BC adults, 18 years of age and over
Margin of error: ±4.4% at the 95% confidence level;
Sponsored by: Global TV / 1030 News

RESOURCES

The polling company that did the survey:
www.mustelgroup.com/
The link to the survey, which is shown in graphical form, is here:
www.mustelgroup.com/press.html

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 19, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1869
VANCOUVER MAYOR TO MEET WITH BC OVER OLYMPIC VILLAGE SCHOOL FUNDING ISSUE

Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan says he will meet with the BC government in an effort to get it to pay for an elementary school on the grounds of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Athlete Village so that the structure can first be used as a large polyclinic during the Games.

The Vancouver School Board has been told that the BC Education ministry won't fund the building under its normal policy of waiting until there are sufficient children to populate it. Although the Olympic Village developer, the Millennium Group, plans to pre-sell the apartments in the Village before the Games for people to take possession of their units during the summer of 2010, the School Board is now looking for bridge financing to help construct the school in time for the Games, knowing it can be paid off once the residents arrived in time for the September start of the 2010 school year.

"I will meet with provincial officials to try to impress upon them how important it is that the school be funded as soon as possible," says Sullivan. The Olympic Village is in the southeast corner of False Creek, across from an area that was recently settled quickly. Sullivan says, "We have found on the other side of False Creek that there were a lot of families that wanted to live in higher density neighbourhoods. I expect [the Olympic Village area] will be an real family neighbourhood. It's important for us to get the school up and running as soon as possible."

Sullivan says the School Board, which was considering the City, the developer and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) as possible sources for the bridge financing before time to start construction of the school runs out next spring, hasn't shown up at his door yet. "I haven't been approached, but I know that the standard approach by the Ministry of Education is that they don't fund the schools for children until they see the whites of their eyes. We know that this neighbourhood will be very attractive to families. We'll do whatever we can to move that timetable forward."

Sullivan, who is a quadriplegic, says that the 2010 Paralympics will help Whistler and Vancouver, which will each be hosting some of the Games, "to be the most accessible cities in the world." And, he adds, he'll be working with Whistler to between now and 2010 to "help make that happen."

Sullivan was in Whistler on Saturday to mark the unveiling of the 2010 Paralympic logo and mark the groundbreaking of the Whistler Athlete's Village.

The Whistler Village, although following a similar process to that of Vancouver's Athlete Village in becoming the core of a new neighbourhood, is taking somewhat different municipal course in getting there. For instance, the rezoning of the Whistler Village was done before any buildings were planned in detail. Vancouver, on the other hand, has worked out a deal with Millennium Development to provide the buildings that will first be used for the 2010 athletes; they will then become private apartments for the centre of a new, much larger neighbourhood, and the rezoning for those buildings is due to come to City Council for approval in October. The city is putting in its own public infrastructure, such as the roads and utilities first.

Sullivan, who's seen a significant draft of the the rezoning plans, was asked if he liked what he saw. He answered this way: "I'm very pleased with the kind of [development]. The pressures they [the developer and the City] are under are pretty significant. There's a lot of negotiating, and a lot of re-thinking that has to be done to make sure that all the stakeholders are happy with the outcome. I think they've done a pretty good job of balancing the interests. It's going to be one of the premier neighborhoods of the City. It's important that what we building in the Olympic Village is going to function as vibrant and healthy neighbourhood. I think our staff has done a great job in ensuring that happens.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on September 18, 2006

Friday, September 15, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1867
A BC GOVERNMENT STUDY OF VANOC'S VENUE CONSTRUCTION METHODS MAKES SEVEN RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHANGE

Partnerships British Columbia, in a due-diligence report for the BC government, has offered a list of seven recommendations on how the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) can improve its construction operations.

The report was prepared during April and May, at the same time as a similar review was being conducted for the federal government by Pacific Liacon. Both consulting operations were reporting on whether their respective governments should approve VANOC's request for C$55 million from each to top up its capital construction budget to C$580 million.

The recommendations show that as of last spring, VANOC needed to know that several venues were going to be funded soon, or it would be taking a significant risk if it went ahead with them. The report recommended money be released to VANOC before the full grant was approved, thus "allowing them to proceed." And it recommended the full request not be released until a new agreement with VANOC on reporting was reached. A new agreement with such provisions is now in place.

Interestingly, one of the recommendations -- about setting up an advisory construction committee -- was originally done long ago and announced by VANOC's CEO John Furlong on June 22, 2004. At that time, he said, he was establishing a "volunteer capital works committee" to help work on how the 2010 Games venue development program was to be handled and delivered. The first two appointees of the committee included David Podmore, president and chief executive officer of Concert Properties Ltd, who was to chair the committee, and Eric Martin, the vice-president of development for Bosa Developments of Vancouver. It was the last time the committee was ever mentioned.

Partnership's Al Sakalauskas, the organization's Chief Project Advisor, and Eva Hage, Assistant Vice-President, recommended that:

VANOC should continue to complete project definition reports and project execution plans for all venues, including a complete quantitative risk register and analysis by October 31, 2006 and demonstrate how they will meet the proposed $580 million capital construction budget.

The Province approve and release its share of the funding immediately for venues where risk mitigation strategies are in place -- the UBC Hockey Arena, the Richmond Oval, the Vancouver Athletes