(The following article is from the February 1-28, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Kimball Cariou

Vancouver is about to descend into 17 days of chaos and contradictions: the 2010 Winter Olympics. For a few, the Games will bring a windfall of tourist dollars during the usual slow month of February. Huge profits will be racked up by hotels, developers, security companies, and corporations with exclusive marketing rights. Those fortunate enough to afford tickets to events will enjoy watching the best athletes in the world, and some dazzling cultural performances.

     But for most in Vancouver, the Games will be a different experience. Many residents have picked up temporary jobs, doing security, for example. Unlike top Olympic officials who have scored big bonuses, they will have to fight through traffic snarls or transit line-ups for low wages. Those with medical appointments near Olympic venues face big challenges to get there, or else wait until March. Ordinary residents who want to take part in free Olympic celebrations will have to endure lengthy waits, intrusive searches and the scrutiny of closed-circuit TV cameras. Thousands of homeless people in Vancouver remain uncertain about their status during the Olympics.

     In the circumstances, even many sports fans question the priorities involved in this spectacle. Was the decision to invest $6 billion in Olympic preparations the wisest choice for Vancouver and Whistler? Or should other priorities have been picked?

     That was already a big question in 2003, when 64% of Vancouverites voted "yes" in a referendum on hosting the Games. We were promised that the athletes' village would be turned into social housing, that major transportation improvements would be made, that these would be the "greenest Games ever," and that indigenous peoples would reap huge benefits.

     Even then, however, these promises seemed dubious. The referendum was held at the height of spending cuts imposed by the Campbell Liberal provincial government. Members of health care unions largely opposed the Games bid since they were being laid off and hit with wage rollbacks. Teachers, parents and students were angry that the province would open the purse strings for the Games but not for cash-starved public schools. Anti-poverty activists warned that the social housing promises were unlikely to be kept. Civil rights advocates scoffed at the initial low budget estimates for Olympic security. Small wonder that many social justice movements (including People's Voice newspaper and the Communist Party) urged a "no" vote. If the opposition forces had been more tightly focused on the issue of social priorities, the vote might have been just a bit closer, tipping the scales against VANOC's narrowly successful bid.

     Seven years later, the so-called "nay-sayers" have largely been vindicated. Many of the promises in the VANOC bid book have gone up in smoke, especially the social housing commitment. Homelessness has skyrocketed in the Vancouver region, and the social housing component of the ritzy athletes' village was eliminated.

     As for public transit, the only significant Olympic-related improvement is the Canada Line skytrain between downtown and the airport. Initial ridership levels are higher than transit experts had feared, but the line will require taxpayer subsidies to its private ownership for an indefinite period. At the enormous cost of $2 billion, the Canada Line has improved transit options for a fraction of the population, but construction impacts devastated dozens of businesses along its route. Meanwhile, riders in the rest of the Vancouver region still suffer from poor service thanks to a chronic shortage of buses.

     Less than a month before the Feb. 12 opening ceremonies, the full impact of provincial spending cuts is front page news. On Jan. 19, the Vancouver School Board was compelled to send letters to teachers warning that hundreds of jobs may be in danger. The culprit here is the Campbell government. Scrambling to cover a $3 billion deficit, the province has left Vancouver schools with an estimated $17-36 million shortfall heading into consultations for the district's next budget. The story is the same across B.C. Nearly every district faces grim choices to close schools, slash programs, lay off teachers, and expand class sizes. The students who are encouraged to celebrate excellence at the Winter Games will soon see a stark deterioration in their learning conditions.

     Staff and patients in B.C.'s health care face a similar outlook. Despite the Campbell government's cheery claims to be protecting core services, regional authorities simply cannot maintain the system with current funding levels.

     The government's response to the fiscal decline which followed the 2008 global economic crisis has been two-fold: slash spending on vital public services, and impose the "harmonised sales tax" on British Columbians. The first strategy has meant the problems just described. The latter does not even bring in revenue to government coffers, since the HST will go directly from consumers to businesses. It's true that B.C. is being bribed to impose the HST by the federal Tories, but nowhere near the provincial deficit.

     As for indigenous peoples, members of the "Four Host Nations" have picked up some temporary jobs, and native art will appear prominently at many Olympic venues. But aboriginal poverty rates in B.C. have not shifted, and the Campbell government's "treaty process" has been sunk by well-founded fears that this path leads to elimination of inherent aboriginal rights. "No Olympics on stolen Native land" has become the rallying cry of many critics.

     That leaves many asking: what if different choices had been made seven years ago?

     Consider a few hard numbers, such as the billion-dollar Olympic security budget. If half of this expenditure ($500 million) had gone into tackling homelessness, at an average of $200,000 per unit, about 2500 units of housing could have been built. Most of Vancouver's street people (who are largely Native) would already be living in decent housing. Sounds expensive? Maybe, but the average annual cost of health care, policing, etc. for homeless people in Vancouver is over $50,000. In other words, investing $500 million in housing would save taxpayers about $125 million per year. Such an emergency plan would have required governments to seize a sizable chunk of real estate from private developers, but the only obstacle was lack of political will.

     What about the other $500 million? Currently, TransLink limps along with a shortage of 500 buses. Less than a year ago, the "More Buses Now" campaign supported by CAW Local 111 (TransLink drivers) pointed out that 100 used buses could be purchased from California for $35-90,000 each, or less than $10 million. More expensive new buses cost up to $400,000, so 400 of these vehicles would cost $160 million. The crippling shortage of buses across the region could be solved for a fraction of the Olympic security budget.

     Then there's public education. Investing another $200 million of the Olympic security funds would have allowed Vancouver to overcome the impacts of 20 years of underfunding and cutbacks, with plenty left over for other school systems in the Lower Mainland.

     That leaves another $130 million to build hospitals, hire more health care staff at better pay, raise social assistance rates, etc.

     All these options would have created thousands of jobs, some permanent, some short-term, but all more secure and beneficial to society than spending $1 billion to search backpacks, install video cameras, and erect 40 kilometers of fencing. The lives of tens of thousands of people could have been dramatically improved, lowering the annual costs of health care for British Columbians. Thousands of young people would have received a better education.

     Far more would have been possible if the rest of the Olympic budget - the $2 billion Canada Line, the billion dollar athletes' village, the $800 million upgrade of the highway to Whistler, hundreds of millions on new Olympic facilities - had been redirected.

     When the torch enters B.C. Place on February 12, protesters will be in the streets outside. That demonstration may not be huge, given the relentless media/police attack against anti-Olympic dissent. But growing numbers of British Columbians are wondering about the "path not taken." After all, we'll be paying through the nose for this expensive party for at least another generation.