Olympic security estimated to cost $900M

The federal and provincial governments have revealedtheir revised estimates for2010 Olympic Games security, now pegged at $900 million, or almost five times the amount initially estimated.

Under the new agreement, B.C.'s total contribution will be $252.5 million, which includes $165 million in new moneythat was announced Thursday.

The province's new funding will go toward infrastructure and will involve capital spending spread over three years.

"This allows us to take what was going to be a pressure on our operating budget and cap it, so that we didn't have to divert dollars away from other programs in the province, such as health care and education, to live up to our Olympic security obligations," Colin Hansen, Minister Responsible for the Olympics, said Thursday.

Thefederal government announced in a news release that itstotal contribution will now be$647.5 million and also, that it will pay forany unforeseen costs that may arise.

"It would be nice if we could do it for less, but our approach has not been to set a budget and then deliver security for that budget," said Peter van Loan, the federal minister in charge of Olympic security.

The province initially estimatedits contribution for providing security for the Games would be $87.5 million. As recently as last July, Hansen announced the entire security budget would be $175 million.

Subsequentestimates,including one from the federal government,suggestedthe entire cost of providing security for theGamescould cost as much as $1 billion.