Security ... think about it!
If we were to divide the cost equally among 34 million Canadians, each of us will be contributing $26. That would be a little over $100 for our family of four. As British Columbians, we'll be paying a lot more than that, since as the province is picking up $252 million of the $900 million directly, or about $60 each, so my family's share of the Olympic security costs rises to more than $300. Now we're talking real money. So much, in fact, that I think it's time to start asking whether the cost of security has become a game-changer for the Olympics. We are approaching the point where it is costing almost as much to protect the Olympics as it does to stage them. Leave out the big-ticket items that have value on their own -- the Sea to Sky Highway, the convention centre expansion and the Canada Line -- and security is the largest single budget item for Canadian taxpayers. In London, planners for the 2012 Games are now looking at a tab that is headed toward £1.5 billion, or $2.5 billion.
