The Economic Impact of the Winter Olympic & Paralympic Games

Initial Estimates, January 2002
A Report Commissioned by: Honourable Ted Nebbeling, Minister of State
for Community Charter and 2010 Olympic Bid
Prepared by: Capital Projects Branch, Ministry of Competition, Science and Enterprise, Province of British Columbia, Honourable Rick Thorpe, Minister

Acknowledgments
This paper has benefited enormously from the cooperation of a number of individuals both within and outside the provincial government. I would particularly like to acknowledge the assistance of Marg Palmer and her staff in the ministry library for their relentless global search for relevant research documents. Nancy South, Manager, Tourism, Resource Planning Division, Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management has contributed her expertise to the tourism impact analysis. David Gray, Senior Advisor, Economics Branch, Ministry of Competition, Science and Enterprise provided a number of editorial suggestions which are reflected in the paper and was instrumental in shaping the discussion about the Purchasing Power Parity Index. Finally, amongst my government colleagues, Gary Horne, Manager, Economic Impact Analysis at BC Stats, Ministry of Finance, and resident expert on the provincial Input Output Model, was instrumental in steering me around technical obstacles inherent in the Input Output model which generates the multipliers used in this study.

Jock Finlayson, Vice President, Policy at the British Columbia Business Council graciously served as an independent reader of an earlier draft and also contributed insights which are reflected in this paper. Arthur Andersen assisted in auditing the model and also contributed to the shaping of the tourism projections.

I remain solely responsible for the opinions expressed and the conclusions presented in this paper.

John B. Gray
Director, Capital Projects Branch