Leaks and lies

Yesterday, Colin Hansen, the B.C. minister responsible for the 2010 Olympics, hinted that an Auditor General's report to be released today would show that the Olympics were set to go forward within the government's budget. Crass politics in the "self-serving leak" department to be sure, but one would think it would at least bear some resemblance to the report itself.

Today, word comes out that Hansen's claim couldn't have been much more wrong:

British Columbia taxpayers are already on the hook for more than double what their provincial government estimated for the 2010 Winter Olympics and audit reports released Thursday suggest things could get worse.

B.C. Auditor General Arn van Iersel's report indicates British Columbia has little wiggle room to meet its targets for the Games and that there are several risks that could blow the budget.

The contingency fund the province has set aside has mostly been gobbled up and what's left likely won't be enough, he concluded...

The budget, said van Iersel's report, has increased to $2.5 billion for the B.C. and federal governments. Most of that - $1.5 billion - will be covered by British Columbia.

At best, the provincial government can claim that it may stay within its cap for "direct costs of staging the Games" by creatively redefining overruns not to fall into that category. At worst, it looks like Hansen's statement may have been nothing more than a desperate attempt to pretend there's some good news in advance of a scathing report. And one way or the other, B.C.'s citizens have to hoping to have both a more honest and a more competent government in charge by the time the Olympics actually roll around.