Whistler Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, will take place in 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Both the Olympic and Paralympic Games are being organized by the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC).

The 2010 Winter Olympics will be the third Olympics hosted by Canada, and the first by the province of British Columbia. Previously, Canada was home to the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. The villages of Whistler and Garibaldi bid for the games in 1976 but failed to win.

Following Olympic tradition, current Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan received the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, which was also attended by Governor General Michaëlle Jean and Premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell. The flag was raised on February 28, 2006, in a special flag raising ceremony, and will be on display at Vancouver's city hall until the Olympic opening ceremony. At the same time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement that the Olympic flame had begun its journey to Vancouver.

The Call for Volunteers program was launched on February 12, 2008 to find 25,000 volunteers.

The initial problem Vancouver faced in winning the bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics was fundraising for construction of venues. The Bid Committee, and subsequently VANOC, arranged for commitments of investment on a 50/50 basis by the federal and provincial governments, primarily for amounts to cover venue construction costs. It later began to achieve sponsorships and donations from private corporations and institutions. Such commitments were made enthusiastically as a chance to build on the world prestige Vancouver already gained as host of the 1986 World's Fair and to improve on the technological advances made during that event, like the expansion of the SkyTrain transit system.

The expansion was a pledge of the BC government, and not the responsibility of VANOC. Construction of the rapid transit link between Richmond, the adjacent international airport and downtown Vancouver is now underway and is expected to be completed by late 2009. The BC government also indicated it would pay for a C$600 million upgrade of the Sea-to-Sky Highway to accommodate increased traffic between Vancouver and Whistler, although this highway upgrade has been overdue for more than a decade and will still not meet the basic needs of the corridor.[citation needed]

The three main venues -- constructed at a cost of $580 million, about 23 per cent above the 2003 bid forecasts -- have already had their work largely completed. The $40-million Hillcrest/Nat Bailey stadium park, which will host curling, will be finished later this year. The Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) spent $16.6 million on upgrading facilities at Cypress, which will host the freestyle (aerials, moguls, ski cross) and snowboarding events. The athletes' villages in Whistler and Vancouver are still under construction, as are the main media centre in Coal Harbour and its Whistler counterpart.[citation needed]

As of 2004, the operational cost of the 2010 Winter Olympics is estimated to be in the range of C$1.4 billion. In 2006, VANOC CEO John Furlong estimated it would be about C$1.7 billion, all raised from non-government sources, primarily through sponsorships and the auction of national broadcasting rights. C$580 million is the taxpayer-supported budget to construct or renovate venues throughout Vancouver and Whistler, C$200 million is expected to be spent for security, of which the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is the lead agency.