Vancouver's 2010 Olympic Legacy is beginning already

The Olympic legacy is being felt even before the 2010 Winter Olympics have begun. Cuts in the Arts and the closure of popular tourist attractions shows how tight money is.

The funding the British Columbia Arts Council receives from the Provincial Government is being slashed by 82%. In 2008/2009 the funding was $19.5 Million, but for the next two years the amount the BC Arts Council will receive is $3.5 Million.

The reason given by the Provincial Government for the huge decrease is that certain parts of the economy need the $16 million more, including Health - budget 14 billion dollars - and Education with its $5 billion budget. No other Canadian provinces have cut their support for the Arts during the current economic crisis. In fact, Quebec, Newfoundland, and Ontario have increased their Arts funding. Indeed in Quebec, the province’s funding of the Arts now makes up 26 percent of every performing arts organization's budget.

This huge cut in funding could not have come at a worse time. The same provincial government that has cut Arts funding is introducing the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on July 1st 2010. The HST is replacing the Provincial Sales Tax (PST set at 7%) and Government Sales Tax (GST set as 5%) and will add an extra 12% to the cost of all items. Because theatre tickets weren’t subject to PST or GST, this means that the price of tickets to arts and culture events will increase by 12%.

A good illustration of the effect these changes will have is the famous Bard on the Beach festival held in Vanier Park in Vancouver. The festival’s funding will drop from $80,500 in 2009 to $14,900 in 2011 and ticket prices will rise from a highest price of $34 in 2009 to $38 in 2010.

The next legacy of the Olympics is the closing of the Stanley Park Petting Zoo and the Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth II Park, which will save around $2.8 million. One reason for closing the Conservatory was that the roof of this heritage building, consisting of plexiglass bubbles, needs replacing at a cost of $2 million. This price should be placed into the context of the cost of the replacement roof for the BC Place Stadium, for which a $458 million fixed-price contract was recently negotiated.

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