Friday, November 06, 2009

First There Was The $7 Billion Cost Of The Five-Ringed Circus Tents...

AllTheGougingThatFits
AreWeInAthensYetVille

...Then There Was The Cost Of The $1 Billion Security .


And now?

Well, now, apparently there is also the cost of a report that just might (or might not) tell us why the predicted revenue from the Circus-Circus coming to town is actually going to be $6.7 Billion less than that which was first announced to the sounds of blaring trumpets and the bleatings of watercarriers or so many IOC-junkets ago.

So.

How much did the report actually cost itself?

Well....

How about $2 million?

Ya, you read that right.

Two million lousy dollars for a 'report'.

Andrew MacLeod had that story, buried deep within the big lede of his $6.7B shortfall blockbuster, earlier this week in the The Tyee:

"....The province has more recent reports on the impacts of the Games that they've so far refused to release, he (NDP finance critic Bruce Ralston) said, including a $2 million study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

"Why wouldn't they just release those reports?" Ralston asked. "Maybe those reports don't support what they're saying publicly."

VANOC is also withholding a study by University of British Columbia professors Bob Sparks and Rob VanWynsberghe that was to look at the economic, environmental and social impacts of the Games and was to be released in June.

The minister of state responsible for the Olympic secretariat, Mary McNeil, was travelling with the torch relay and unavailable...."


All of which is chump change, right?

Unless, of course you are a paramedic and/or the parent of an autistic kid.


****

I mean, seriously, have these people no shame whatsoever?


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