Vancouver’s Olympic Bet

A blizzard of bad news hit the start of the Winter Olympics last week. Hours before the opening ceremony, a Georgian athlete died in a tragic accident while practicing on the luge track in an incident that drew safety concerns. The unseasonably warm weather has led some to dub these Games the first “Spring Olympics.” Organizers, faced with a lack of snow, refunded general admission tickets to some events this week, translating to $400,000 in lost-ticket revenue. But even as news reports cast light on the Games’ unwanted hurdles, local officials hope to showcase Vancouver during the Olympics and help shepherd along its economic recovery.

Like much of the world, British Columbia felt the effects of the economic downturn in 2009, particularly because of its close proximity to the United States. The province’s unemployment hovers just above 8 percent—slightly below Canada’s 8.3 percent rate. Vancouver’s unemployment rate is just below 8 percent, but double that of January 2008. A year ago, Canadian credit-rating agency DBRS downgraded Vancouver’s debt rating after the city was forced to buy out a U.S. hedge fund financing the Olympic Village. Columnist for The Vancouver Sun Vaughn Palmer forecasts the Games will cost the City $8 billion, far higher than the $1.42 billion price tag announced by Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC). Demonstrators, angered by city spending on the Games, demanded housing for Vancouver’s homeless as the Olympics got underway. Coverage of organized crime has also cast a shadow over Olympic celebrations in the lead-up to the Games. Canadian authorities say Mexico’s crackdown has slowed drug flows north to Vancouver, cutting into drug-gangs’ profit margins and sparking violent turf wars.

But despite spots of gloomy news, there are plenty of bright spots for Canada’s third-largest city. Vancouver rates as the world’s most livable city, topping the Economist Intelligence Unit’s livability survey for the third year in a row. Efforts to stage green Olympics also serve as a way for Vancouver—the city with the lowest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in North America—to promote sustainable business investments. In late January, CIBC World Markets predicted that only Saskatchewan would outpace British Columbia’s growth rate. Fueled by rising demand for commodities, B.C.’s economy could grow by 2.8 percent in 2010. A City of Vancouver report from the third quarter of 2009 shows signs of recovery in both the city and province’s damaged housing markets.

As The Globe and Mail reports, Vancouver’s Mayor Gregor Robertson sees the Olympics as a chance to highlight the city’s central location in Asia-Pacific business to foreign companies. Robertson and other mayors in the province borrowed a page from the 2000 Sydney Games, when officials met with dozens of foreign business leaders. Roughly 100 executives from 70 foreign firms will be hosted with the goal of bringing business to Vancouver long after the Games are gone.

A sidebar in a Financial Times looks back to Canada’s two prior Olympics—the 1976 Montreal Games and the 1988 Calgary Games—comparing the shortcomings of the former and the successes of the latter.

Learn more:

• Official website of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympics Games.
• British Columbia fact sheet.
• Ministry of Finance of British Colombia.
• “Olympics City Strives to Rise above Recession,” Financial Times, February 12, 2010.