Preparations for next year's Winter Olympics continue to transform the Vancouver skyline, with Hong Kong-linked companies prominent in the changes.
While officials of the Vancouver Organising Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (Vanoc) talk of the 'legacy' the February Games and March Paralympics will bring, the local media has been speculating how much the cost overruns will sting taxpayers.
The British Columbia auditor-general in 2006 estimated at least C$2.5 billion (HK$15.71 billion) in taxpayer costs. The official Vanoc construction budget is set at C$580 million. Other construction costs of more than C$1 billion were offloaded onto the municipalities where the venues will be.
Vancouver wants to avoid the kind of cost overruns experienced by the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics (the C$2 billion debt was cleared in 2006), and is hoping that Canada will win its first home gold medal. Canada won no events in Montreal or at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.
According to Vanoc, Vancouver is getting new buildings in the Olympic/Paralympic Centre that will host the curling, while the 7,200-seat Thunderbird Arena at the University of British Columbia will stage some of the ice hockey.
Richmond, a suburb popular with Asian immigrants, is home to the Olympic Oval, venue for the speed skating, and West Vancouver, the country's wealthiest address, is getting a refurbishment of Cypress Mountain for the freestyle skiing and snowboarding.
Whistler, Canada's top ski destination 90 minutes north of the city, will be left with the 12,000-capacity sliding centre to stage the luge, bobsled and skeleton events, and the Olympic/Paralympic Park will feature three stadiums for the biathlon, cross-country skiing, Nordic Combined and ski jumping. Upgrades have been made to existing stadiums, community centres and ski areas.
