Latest Editions

Was it worth it?

Audio: Play | Download

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Was it worth it? That’s the question many people are asking in British Columbia with the Olympics just days away. Seven years of planning, construction, and hassle. All told, Canadians will have spent about $6 billion Canadian dollars just to build the infrastructure to prepared for the Games. That’s about $5.6 billion American dollars. The World’s Jason Margolis visited British Columbia to ask. Download MP3 (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

• Vancouver 2010
• Listen to Jason’s previous story: “Long winter for Olympic village businesses”

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN:  I’m Marco Werman and this is The World.  Was it worth it? That’s what Canadians are asking before the Winter Olympics begin in Vancouver next week and after seven years of planning, construction, and hassles.  All told, Canadians will have spent about $6 billion Canadian dollars just to build the infrastructure for the Games.  That’s about $5.6 billion U.S.  dollars. The World’s Jason Margolis begins his report with an example of how that tab got so high.

JASON MARGOLIS: Top speeds on the new Olympic bobsled track in Whistler, British Columbia top 95 miles per hour. It’s the fastest track in the world, one of the jewels built specifically for the Vancouver Games.  The refrigerated concrete track cost $105 million dollars to build.  All numbers Canadian.  At nine tenths of a mile, that’s about $22,000 dollars per foot. The cost was split between the federal government in Ottawa and the province of British Columbia.  The President of the Whistler Tourism Board, Barrett Fisher thinks the track is great.

BARRETT FISHER: You are so up close and personal to see this incredible speed going by, and it’s just takes your breath away.  So, no, I’ve found it quite phenomenal.

MARGOLIS: Jordan Sturdy, the mayor of Pemberton, the village just up the road from Whistler has a more nuanced perspective.

JORDAN STUDY: You know, if we were to invest whatever, $100 or $150 or $200 million, whatever it is, into our children, that would not be the first thing I would choose. However, if it’s there, we’re going to use it. Don’t be surprised when you see a kid from Pemberton winning the gold eight years from now.

MARGOLIS: That’s not quite enough to convince public policy analyst Seth Klein with the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives.

SETH KLEIN: You know, I’m one of these people who thinks both the summer and winter Games should always be in the same place.  I think we should just go back to Lillehammer every four years.  Because, you know, we don’t need all those luge runs all over the world. They’re not practically useful.

JAMES BRANDER: None of this is necessary.  It’s a party. None of it’s necessary.

MARGOLIS: And so goes the Olympic spending debate in British Columbia. That last voice was economist James Brander from the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. He says, sure it can be hard to justify the cost of a new bobsled run or spending $38 million for a new curling facility, but  consider what else British Columbia got for $6 billion dollars in spending.

BRANDER: Most of the money is on the big infrastructure projects. They’re sometimes called the legacy projects. So the big ticket items are the rapid transit line, the highway upgrade between Vancouver and Whistler itself.  There’s a convention center, and there’s a large housing development, which is Olympic Village.

MARGOLIS: Now whether that’s all worth it, depends on who you ask.  Brander says the upgrade to the notoriously dangerous Sea to Sky Highway as well as the new rapid transit line that connects Vancouver to the airport were overdue and good investments.  But he’s not so keen on the Olympic Village, which will be converted into public housing after the Games.  It costs more than $1 billion dollars.

BRANDER: This social housing is probably the most expensive social housing that’s ever been built.  It’s just not the way you want to go about building social housing.

MARGOLIS: Many argue that these big infrastructure projects shouldn’t really even count as Olympic spending, that these projects would have eventually happened without the Olympics coming to town. But on the flip side, things got done now because the Olympics were coming.  For example, with the highway upgrade and new rapid transit line, the Games acted as a catalyst.

MAURICE LEVI: Yeah, I think catalyst is the right word, and in the names of the Games, you know, there were some people who were willing to accept more disruption than they otherwise would have done.

MARGOLIS: Economist Maurice Levi teaches at the University of British Columbia.

LEVI: I think that we would probably never been able to get around to putting in a major transit system like the Canada Line. And I think most people and most reports I’ve heard are very, very positive. And, you know, while the retailers that were affected somewhat adversely, I think the net benefit has been quite terrific. And it’s going to be a legacy of the Games.

MARGOLIS: The Games have also been a good deal for the resort village of Whistler, which is hosting many of the skiing events. The village got $100 million dollars worth of upgrades.  Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed says it’s been fantastic.  His village only had to pay for about a tenth of the costs.  The village got things from a new CT scanner at the hospital to repaved parking lots.  And because Whistler is hosting the Olympics and Paralympics, Melamed says much of Whistler was redesigned to improve accessibility for the disabled.

MAYOR MELAMED: The athletes’ village will become the Paralympics athletes’ village as well. So it has been designed with accessibility in mind. And about a hundred of the units are accessible, as is the Athlete Center.  And we will become a national training center for able and disabled athletes across Canada and internationally.

MARGOLIS: And with 10,000 members of the media descending on British Columbia, the phone company laid down a lot of fiber optic cable.

MAYOR MELAMED: Whistler will be one of the most connected towns on the planet; way more capacity than we would ever need, but it provides us for lots of opportunity for the new digital era.

MARGOLIS: But going back to the original question.  Was all the money, the inconvenience, and the aggravation worth it?  Again, it depends on who you ask.  After every Olympics, the costs and the benefits will be analyzed and re-analyzed.  The boosters will come up with one conclusion and the skeptics will reach another.  Economist James Brander says it’s impossible to reach a consensus on the whether the Games are ultimately worth the cost.

BRANDER: It’s not a money making enterprise, but, you know, we do it because we like it, it makes us feel good.  Okay, we’re throwing a party, and more than most parties, of course, it’s a party that it generates civic pride, national pride, and might actually produce some additional community spirit and so on.  So there are some intangible benefits from the Olympics. And I’m smiling as I say this, but they’re important.

MARGOLIS: If history holds true, the Vancouver Olympics will probably lose money in the end.  But if Team Canada wins gold in say men’s hockey, Canadians everywhere will probably forget about the price tag for at least a little while.  For the World, I’m Jason Margolis, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.