Canadian news media forms united front for Olympics coverage

Seven large Canadian media companies including CanWest have come together as a consortium to share news and resources for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

49 daily newspapers, including the Vancouver Sun and Toronto Star, will band together for the purposes of advertising and news sharing to give 3.5 million daily subscribers (35% of all daily readers in Canada) the same exact viewpoints, because everyone knows people's information needs are best informed by a single, omnipresent voice!

Source: National Post

Three charged after cabinet office trashed in anti-Olympics violence

Three protesters with the "Anti Poverty Committee" have been arrested after trashing a Vancouver cabinet office. Brendon Cunningham, 29, and Thomas Malenfant, 23 are both charged with two counts of mischief and one count of break and enter. A 17-year old girl who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act also faces two mischief charges.

The group tried to symbolically "evict" Ken Dobell, adviser to BC premier Gordon Campbell. He is also helping plan for Vancouver 2010. The idea was to draw attention to the city's homelessness issues or whatever but instead they drew attention to the city's numerous and widespread stupid hippie asshole problems!

Nice going idiots, you have really made everyone hate the Olympics!

Vancouver 2010 legacy plans outlined

The Olympics have a way of leaving a lasting mark where they are hosted, and the organizers of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics have every intention of that ringing true for British Columbia. Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) CEO John Furlong had the following comments in a press release by the committee today:

"Since the idea of hosting the 2010 Winter Games surfaced in Vancouver back in 1996, the vision has been consistently clear - in addition to hosting outstanding Games, they must create benefits and legacies for sport and communities."

Among the legacy goals outlined in the press release:

• $110M will be invested by the federal and provincial governments to create the 2010 Winter Games Operating Trust to maintain and keep viable sports facilities like the Whistler Nordic Venue, Whistler Sliding Centre, and Richmond Oval.
• After the games, the Vancouver Olympic village will become a mixed-use community with 1,100 residential units, including 250 non-market, supportive housing units.
• Likewise, the Whistler Olympic village will become a permanent mixed-use community.
• Whistler will see the construction of the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre.
• Medical and sports equipment used during the games will be donated to community organizations.

Source: VANOC press release

1,000 days until the Vancouver 2010 Olympics

With 1,000 days remaining until the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, the event is starting to take shape on the planning side of things. Canoe.ca's Terry Jones has an excellent article detailing the various construction and renovation activities planned for 2010, available here.

While it might be an Olympic feat to have the Games remain on time and on budget, VANOC appears to be doing everything right so far.

Former attorney general to curb panhandling, drug sales for 2010

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan has tapped former BC Attorney General Geoff Plant to clean up Vancouver proper in preparation for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The Project Civil City initiative aims to reduce homelessness, open drug dealing, and panhandling by 50% for the Games.

Said Sullivan:

"I'm very conscious that in 2010, the world will be arriving. It's very important for us to use the Olympics and Paralympic Games as a catalyst to improve our city."

Plant said that good work has been done on "housing, drug addiction, mental health and enforcement," and said he will try to "bring this work together and knit it into a cohesive, integrated implementation plan."

Critic David Eby of the Pivot Legal Society called the plan an attempt to "harass poor people in the Downtown Eastside and get them off the streets and into other neighborhoods and into other cities before the Olympics."

Well, yeah, duh.

Source: SeattlePI.com

Vancouver encourages environmentally friendly taxis

Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon has said that Vancouver aims to have a green taxi fleet in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Falcon has directed the Passenger Transportation Board to issue new taxi permits only to hybrid and energy-efficient vehicles from now on in Vancouver and Victoria, and the Ministry will work with the taxi industry to replace the existing conventional fleet.

Will you be in one of those taxis in 2010? I know I will be!

Source: Globe and Mail

Dubreuil and Lauzon take a season off, vow to compete in Vancouver 2010

Canadian figure skating pair Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon have decided not to compete in ice dancing competitions this season, instead choosing to focus on the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The duo will continue to skate in artistic shows but will not compete on the advice of their coach. A press release quoted Lauzon as saying:

"[Coach Muriel Zazoui] feels that we are not finished with our career and that we should give the Olympics another try. So on her advice, we'll take a sabbatical and do shows, but we'll plan on doing the pre-Olympic and Olympic season."

The pair recently won gold at the Four Continents Championships in January in Colorado.

Source: Canada.com

Local businesses hit hard by Skytrain expasion

Foot traffic has slowed to such a crawl on a 14 block section of Cambie Street, and popular businesses are devoid of customers or closing altogether.

A new section of Skytrain is being constructed to connect the city center to the international airport at Richmond to efficiently move people during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, and it has meant heavy construction in the streets. Originally, tunnels were to be bored underground so as to allow business to continue as normal, but plans changed and now small business owners are finding themselves out of customers and out of luck. Six lanes of traffic have been cut down to two, causing traffic nightmares.

InTransitBC spokesman Steve Crombie noted that new businesses have opened where old ones have closed in the popular district:

"Going through 19 kilometres of busy urban area, there's no way you can do a project like this without causing disruption. Considering the complexity and size of the project, it's gone extremely well so far."

Source: Globe and Mail

$45M for hydrogen fuel-cell buses for Games

British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell announced Friday that the province would ante up $45M for the procurement of buses running on hydrogen fuel-cells for the municipalities of Whistler and Victoria in advance of the Vancouver 2010 Games. Fueling stations will also be placed around the cities in question with the funding money.

Source: GamesBids.com

Business Plan and Games Budget for 2010 released by VANOC

The Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) has revealed it's full Business Plan and Games Budget for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The highlights include:

• The Games Operating Budget is $1.6B (CDN) total, with all costs included less construction costs.
• 74% of the budget comes from private sources, including "international and domestic sponsorships, licensing and merchandising, ticket sales and fundraising, and a portion of the worldwide sale of Games television broadcast rights."
• The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is responsible for $579M of funding, plus an additional $35M that was apparently "negotiated at the last minute".
• Venue construction is funded by the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia, filling in the remaining 26% of total funding, with each kicking in $290M.
• The two biggest construction/upgrading costs are $104.9M for the Whistler Sliding Centre, and $119.7M for the Whistler Nordic Competition Venue.
• With a 95% ticket sale ratio, $231M in revenue is expected.

Source: VANOC Business Plan and Games Budget

Watchdog group gives Games "D minus" grade

The Impact of the Olympics on Community Coalition (IOCC), a Vancouver-based NGO claiming to be neither pro- nor anti-Olympics has given the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics a D minus grade based on their research into the impact the Games will have on the surrounding community. The group said it would give an outright F if it weren't for the amount of time the Games have left to solve the problems it sees.

Among the issues the group wants address are the rising homelessness rate due to increased rents, and the protection of grizzly bear habitats in the Callaghan Valley, which will be home to Nordic ski events during the Games.

Source: CTV.ca

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin gives Vancouver advice on Olympic issues

Any modern metropolis is prone to homelessness issues, and Vancouver's comparatively warm Canadian climate and heavy tourism industry make it a prime location for those living below the poverty line without shelter. Atlanta's current mayor Shirley Franklin (who was not mayor during the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta) was in Vancouver this week addressing the Vancouver Board of Trade, and spoke with CBC's Radio One:

"We worked with the service providers and provided for shelter for every single person who was homeless who would come forward. Now that's an important word: 'come forward.' Not everyone wants to be a part of a social program."

An alternative viewpoint was presented by Wendy Pedersen of the Carnegie Community Action Project:

"They [The City of Atlanta] had six ordinances that made all kinds of things illegal, including lying down, just like we've got planned for Vancouver with [Project] Civil City. Lots of people were shipped out, and lots of people were put in jail. They actually built the city jail. Activists there called it the first Olympic project completed on time."

Source: CBC News