By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun,
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The federal government is
using its access to Olympic tickets to give priority to politicians, bureaucrats and others who will
get some of the best seats
in the house during the Winter Games next month.
Of the nearly 1,500 tickets
that the government has received, more than half will go to MPs, senators and
bureaucrats who were able to put in their own orders in advance of the public.
At one point, the number was
much higher. Ottawa was originally allocated more than 2,500 tickets to
everything from the opening and closing ceremonies to medal events such as gold medal hockey,
figure skating and speed skating.
But Canadian Heritage Minister
James Moore said more than half of the $447,000 spent on the tickets will be
recovered from MPs and senators who have to pay out of their own pocket.
Both the federal and
provincial governments insist taxpayers are only paying for tickets used to advance government
agendas, not for anyone
merely to have a good time.
The British Columbia
government has spent nearly $1 million on tickets.
Documents obtained under
Access to Information by Vancouver freelance journalist Stanley Tromp show that before tickets were offered for sale to the public, Ottawa was permitted to
put in orders for the 2,552
tickets the Vancouver Organizing Committee agreed to sell to them.
Under the terms of the
multiparty agreement, governments, national Olympic committees, sport federations,
corporate sponsors and other members of the loosely termed "Olympic
Family" were given access to tickets before the public
had a chance to buy any.
As part of the agreement, all
MPs and senators are accredited to the Games by Vanoc.
But in May 2008, as it was in the middle of its ticket request process, the
government decided to give parliamentarians and "domestic
dignitaries" special access to its ticket allocations. It said they could
buy tickets to all prime and non-prime events for
themselves and their spouses as long as the tickets -- ranging from $25 to
$1,100 -- were available.
In the months following that
decision, government officials received more than 3,400 requests for 2,552 tickets.
But last July, when Prime
Minister Stephen Harper, facing a budget crunch, ordered that 1,000 of the
tickets be returned, most of the tickets the government threw back were to less desirable events.
In fact, it kept the full allocations of the most popular sports, including
figure skating, short and long track speed skating, as well as the opening and
closing ceremonies. For ice
hockey, where it was originally allocated 730 tickets, it kept 60 per cent --
but most of those were for top draws, including the Canadian
matches. Not only did Ottawa receive 100 per cent of the 126 tickets it sought
to the opening ceremony, but all but 10 of those were the best "A"
section seats at $1,100
apiece.
Despite the cut in
allocations, the government's advance access to tickets means those politicians were still able to queue-jump
over members of the public
who had to duke it out online. Many people have complained about having to wait
for hours in Vanoc's "virtual waiting room" only to discover
the tickets they wanted were no longer available. Of the more than 1.6 million
tickets Vanoc produced, only 900,000 went to the public, including to scalpers.
By far, the largest block of
tickets the government wanted was for
ice hockey. Originally the government put in requests for 1,108. It now has 444. The last spreadsheet the government
released under Access to Information shows that it planned to spend $15,050 for 20 tickets for the gold medal men's event, which Canada has a strong
chance of winning. Of those 20, 18 were for the best seats
at $775 each.
In figure skating, it put in for 34 tickets in the pairs short
program in the $420 "A" category, was allocated 20, and indicated it
still wanted all 34 if it could get them, along with another 20 tickets in two
cheaper categories.
By far the biggest hit to the
taxpayers will be for the
ceremonies. The federal government will spend more than $135,000 on access to
the opening ceremony, and $72,700 for
the closing event.
Eventually, it whittled down
the allocation to 1,494 tickets.
Moore said this week the government
agreed to act as a broker for
parliamentarians and will use the other tickets, including those to the
ceremonies, to attract domestic and international interests, including business
development and investments and foreign and domestic tourism.
"We've said that every
single politician who is
going to go to the Games has to pay for
the tickets themselves," he said.
"The Olympics are a cost
of the MP themselves, not of their office budget, not of their ministerial
budget. So if an MP wants to go to a sporting event, they pay for it out of their personal
funds."
Moore also insisted that
bureaucrats who don't have a justifiable business reason won't get a
government-paid ticket.
"They don't get to go for fun, they only can go if it
is business-related. If it is related to their work, they can go," he
said. "But there won't be any bureaucrats or officials sitting in the
stands watching sporting events
having a good ol' time at the expense of taxpayers.
That is just not going to happen."
The B.C. provincial
government, by comparison, was given access to 3,200 tickets at a cost of
nearly $1 million. But unlike Ottawa, it chose not to give any elected
officials or bureaucrats access to purchase the tickets and instead has
reserved them for advancing
the government's economic aims, according to Mary McNeil, the minister
responsible for the
Olympics.
The only MLAs who will get
tickets will be those who have business cases that justify access or who are
asked to participate in hosting events,
she said. The rest will be given to current and future business partners,
academics, researchers and others with government-related business.
"The people we've
invited are current or future customers and others," she said. "No
MLA will attend any sporting event
with these tickets if they aren't required to do so in the performance of their
jobs. And no spouses, either."
Victoria believes networking
with important clients at sporting events
is a justified expense, she said.
But the federal government
disagrees. Moore said the Harper government expects politicians and bureaucrats to conduct most of their
networking outside of the sporting venues at the Canada Pavilion, ministers'
offices and at two hosting facilities in Vancouver and Whistler.
"Taxpayers will not be
paying for any sporting event for any politician,
including myself and any minister," he said.
Unlike the federal
Conservatives, the opposition New Democratic Party and Liberal Party refused to
participate in the government ticket buying program.
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By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun,
The City of Vancouver is spending $377,370 to buy just over 2,000 tickets
to the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Of that, more than 70 per cent
is for just two sports:
hockey and curling.
But the city is also buying
some of the best seats in
BC Place for elected officials
for the opening and closing
ceremonies.
More than $170,000 of property taxpayers' funds has been spent for those two ceremonies, for which the city has purchased
200 tickets. Of those, 80 per cent are for "A" category seats.
A breakdown of the 2,024 tickets the city bought for its hosting and hospitality
programs was obtained by Vancouver
freelance journalist Stanley Tromp.
The list shows the city has
been allocated every single ticket
it asked for, right down to
two tickets to long-track
speed skating at the Richmond oval.
The vast majority, however,
are for two sports held
within Vancouver's city
limits: 754 tickets for curling at the new Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre at Riley Park, and
695 tickets for hockey at GM Place and the
University of B.C.'s
Thunderbird Sports Centre.
For the most part, the city
limited its purchases to events within its boundaries, with a few notable
exceptions: It acquired 138 tickets
for a combination of Whistler events, including 46 for bobsleigh and 34 for alpine skiing.
City spokeswoman Wendy
Stewart said the city bought a number of multi-event packages to get certain tickets it wanted. That's why, for example, it ended up with four tickets each to biathlon, luge
and skeleton.
Overall, the days costing
taxpayers the most are the first and last of the Olympics -- $101,160, primarily for opening ceremony, and $85,640
for the last day, mostly for the closing ceremony.
The sporting event costing
the single biggest amount during the Olympics is the gold-medal men's hockey
game. The city bought 20 of
the best tickets at $775
each, for a total of $15,500.
Access to the high-value tickets appears to be largely
controlled by a powerful three-person committee made up of senior bureaucrats.
Under a new policy just
approved last week, the city is limiting tickets to those who are asked to attend protocol events and
people who "contributed or are contributing" to city goals such as Vancouver's Green Capital agenda,
economic development or to the betterment of local communities.
Coun. Geoff Meggs
acknowledged he and every other elected politician in the city will receive tickets to the opening and
closing ceremonies. But he said the offer doesn't include spouses, and is for their protocol role as
elected politicians. He said other events are being determined by the so-called
ticket request approval
committee on an as-needed basis and that none of the councillors will get tickets for personal use.
"I think people are
worried that politicians are going to take advantage of the Games for personal entertainment as opposed to official
functions," he said.
"From a councillor's standpoint, unless you've bought your own tickets with your own dough, you
will only get to go to further events if you are assigned by a staff committee
to perform an official function with someone visiting the city."
Coun. Suzanne Anton said she
believes the ticket
allocation committee will make sure the tickets aren't misused.
"I am satisfied with the
process," said Anton, the lone Non-Partisan Association councillor. "We're all going to be going to the
opening ceremonies but we're also on the job as the city's elected
officials."
Not all of the tickets bought will be used by city officials. About
40 per cent were allocated to three groups, the Vancouver Economic Development Commission, Tourism Vancouver and a group running the
city's two LiveCity celebration sites.
Overall, Meggs
said 222 tickets worth
about $100,000 are being
used for protocol events.
The cost of some of the other tickets will be recovered from
the other programs, he said.
Tourism Vancouver will pay the city $67,495 for 265 tickets, and the economic development commission will
get enough tickets to send
50 "highly vetted" business partners to a single event, he said.
The LiveCity
program will distribute 94 tickets
worth $9,910 through a lottery or contest.
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