https://calgarysun.com/opinion/colum...e-olympic-dark
Bell: Calgary, this is how much you're in the Olympic dark
Rick BellMore from Rick Bell
Published:
October 18, 2018
Updated:
October 18, 2018 5:00 AM MDT
Filed Under:
Calgary SUN
Opinion
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Rick Bell holds a redacted copy of a Olympic document in Calgary on Wednesday, October 17, 2018. Jim Wells/Postmedia
If there was any more of a blackout, I’d have to call Enmax.
We know the city report on Olympic finances.
The document was leaked. It said there’d be costs above the $5.2-billion snow job we’re being fed by the city and the Olympic bid corporation.
Accusations ran wild. Mayor Nenshi was miffed and wanted to track down the leaker.
Jeromy Farkas was the councillor wanting the city to release the document.
Like that was going to happen.
Facing the heat, the city wrote and released a Coles Notes version of the leaked document saying about 40% of the original had been removed.
But they wouldn’t say what was removed. They showed us the pablum left in but they didn’t tell us what they took out.
Then Farkas said Calgarians should at least see the whole leaked document, even if the censored portions were blacked out.
At least, Calgarians would know what they were missing.
The city had enough of this political migraine and said Farkas would get his way. The censored report would be made public.
We never did see the city release the report publicly but I have a copy.
Farkas sums up the truth of it.
“The more interesting the stuff, the more secret it gets.”
Ah yes, the Cowtown Kremlin and its addiction to secrets.
Look at what they’ve done. Look. There’s a video as well.
Page 1. Almost nothing censored but it says little.
Page 2. A little more censored but not most.
Blacked out is a section on security costs which everyone with the intellect above a salamander thinks has been lowballed. Also getting blacked out are a few lines on providing essential services during the Games.
Page 3. More in the dark. We can’t wait to turn to the next page. The main course, the meat and potatoes, the whole enchilada.
Here it is … Page 4.
ALL BLACKED OUT.
Everything. All of it. The whole shebang except for the headings.
Revenue projections. Blacked out.
Expense projections. Blacked out.
Capital budget projections. Blacked out.
Guarantees. Blacked out.
Turn to Page 6.
Contingencies and inflation adjustments. Blacked out.
Then, another wrinkle we knew about but now see in black and white.
The report said there would be things the city must do because of the Games.
An example is costs for the moving of the Vic Park bus barns so an athletes’ village can be built there. These are not in the Olympic budget.
Now the city adds a paragraph to “clarify” the athletes’ village could go somewhere else. Right.
So here we are. Because of a leak and a councillor willing to bang his head against the wall, we find out a little but still not a lot.
“Before Calgarians didn’t know what they didn’t know. Now they know what they don’t know,” says Farkas.
“Why does a majority of city council believe we can’t trust Calgarians to look at the facts and make up their minds? It’s insulting and condescending. Let’s treat Calgarians as adults.
“Calgarians do not have the information they need to make an informed decision.”
Calgary city councillor for ward 11 Jeromy Farkas was photographed during a council session on Monday June 25, 2018. Gavin Young/Postmedia
Calgary city hall cannot help themselves. They love the closed door and the blacked-out text. It’s who they are.
They do not tolerate opposition and voting Yes to the Olympics will make these autocrats unbearable.
The arrogance, the puffed-up ego, the smirking self-righteousness will ooze from their every pore. It will be most ugly.
Farkas figures some Calgarians are getting mad.
“They’re angry but nowhere near as angry as they’ll be when they see the actual cost projections.”
Enter Sean Chu. He is the councillor who took up the No to the Olympics cause from the get-go when such a move drew ridicule.
The city came to his area earlier this week to talk to folks about the Olympics. More than 200 people wanted answers.
But you don’t always get what you want.
“The people are just in search of information, especially the financial information,” says Chu.
“People want to learn. Everyone is looking for information but they’re not finding it.”
They got the blacked-out treatment too.
On Wednesday, Franco Terrazzanno of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says at a minimum the Olympics will cost $2,057.43 per Calgary household. Could be thousands of dollars more per Calgary household with cost overruns.
Why does it take the CTF to provide a number when the city has all the numbers we don’t have?
Terrazzanno replies.
“It begs the question, what else is under the table?”
rbell@postmedia.com
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