Politics, like life, is a series of mixed blessings, as in, “It’s a really good idea, but.…” The 2015 Pan Am Games is most definitely a mixed blessing. It’s good that 6,500 athletes will be coming here to compete in summer games, but there sure are a number of concerns about how it is happening.
One big “but” is the cost. The games have been budgeted at $1.4 billion, 95 per cent of which is public money, but these kinds of activities hardly ever come in on budget. The London Olympic Games were budgeted at $4 billion, and came in at $12 billion. The Sochi Games in Russia look like they will involve more than $100 billion in costs.
The Pan Am Games won’t ring up those sums, but Paul Henderson, a world-class sailor who has been involved in several Olympic bids for Toronto, thinks the cost will be close to $5 billion once everything is factored in. The federal government has capped its contribution at $500 million. Does that mean the Ontario taxpayer —and municipal taxpayers as well — will be on the hook for the rest of the money?
The Pan Am Village, where the athletes will be staying, is under construction near the Distillery District, so the accommodation will clearly be ready on time. But the location is difficult. Generally a third of the athletes are involved in track and field and swimming, so those facilities are usually located close to the athletes’ village for ease of transportation. But the track and field location first arranged in Hamilton will now happen at York University, and the swimming facilities are at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus at Morningside Avenue and Kingston Road. Security-encumbered trips to and from these locations will be a problem. (Security at international games is always a big concern, obviously.)
As for Hamilton, city council there said it didn’t want running tracks in the rebuilt Ivor Wynn Stadium, so it will just host soccer — meaning an extra $75 million is needed for York U’s facilities.
Spreading facilities around seems like a good idea, but will it be efficient? Will the facilities find uses when the Games end? The velodrome for cycling will be built at a cost of $60 million in Milton, 60 kilometres west of Toronto. It’s hard to believe there are enough serious cyclists in that part of the world to make effective use of this track.
The same goes for the three Olympic-sized pools being built in Scarborough: that’s a really out-of-the-way place for such a specialized facility. Mayor David Miller had urged this location in order to force a decision to provide good transit there, but we all know what has happened to good new transit lines in Toronto.
Then there’s the issue of turning the back campus at U of T into a field hockey pitch. That area has been used for the past century for rugger, football, cricket and fooling around; a field hockey pitch is specialized and expensive. Protests are growing.
The Pan Am crew at TO2015 is responsible for hype, and that’s being ramped up, but construction of facilities is with Infrastructure Ontario. One waits to see the architectural plans for the sites. Without plans, construction can’t start, and we’re only two years from the event. TO2015 hoped venues would be ready in July 2014 for tests events, but clearly that won’t happen.
Infrastructure Ontario is using the public-private partnership (PPP) model where private companies build and often manage the project. A recent study by two U of T professors analyzed 28 PPP Canada projects in Ontario in the last four years and found that PPPs cost 16 per cent more than if the government had done the project itself. That added an extra $1.4 billion to the $5.5 billion cost.
Maybe there’s some rethinking to do before construction gets underway. Maybe the federal government should relent and schedule some facilities and events at Downsview. Maybe the province should talk tough with TO2015 about money.
It’s good the Pan Am Games will be happening in Toronto in July 2015, so our dear Mayor Rob Ford can provide a hearty welcome. And that’s another “but.”
Post City Magazines’ columnist John Sewell is a former mayor of Toronto and the author of a number of urban planning books.
