Wherein official sponsor of the 2010 Winter Games takes on those grumpy brits at The Guardian. "If you're going to say the Vancouver Games cost $6-billion, have the decency to note $4-billion is for infrastructure that was going to get built anyway".
OK, if we're going to have an honest discussion Gary, let's not argue on the price tag but ask how we're going to pay for it, and how long that's going to take? Let's just pretend that every cost expenditure was completely warranted, including the triple over budget convention centre next to a convention centre in the age of the internet. The Sea to Sky was going to get built anyways you say, but would Harriet Nahanee have died? The RAV Line was going to built anyways you say, but would we have ram-rodded it through council, inflated ridership numbers, forced it to go down Cambie, then switched to cut and cover at the last minute? Let's pretend Translink didn't go bankrupt forcing them to raise fares, tax parking stalls, and cancel the Evergreen Line. Let's pretend that the Athlete's Village didn't go bankrupt and we didn't bail them out under a shroud of secrecy. Let's pretend that VANOC did everything right and held open and transparent meetings and did its best to dissuade Olympic evictions, let's pretend they're not spending a billion on security, only to harass local activists. Let's pretend the Assistance to Shelter act was never passed, and that cops haven't been ticketing DTES residents for jaywalking. Let's pretend they didn't just publish a guide on how to be polite. Let's not even get into the free speech limitations. So let's pretend all of that is totally fine; how are we going to pay for it? I mean if all this was going to get built any how, you know even after a massive recession, how would we tell the public that we were raising taxes while cutting services? Oh yes that's right, the cheerleading local media.
More here from Beyond Robson.
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