VANCOUVER 2010 WINTER OLYMPICS – GREENWASH?

Even though UNEP and the Vancouver Organizing Committee have signed an agreement to enhance environmental performance at the 2010 Winter Olympics, rumours are surfacing that the games’ footprint is flawed. Organizers have claimed that 2010 Games will be the “most sustainable ever”, and have put ambitious plans in place to achieve this goal.

Criticism of the games – avowed to be carbon neutral – has focused thus far on its social dimensions. Organized opposition has come from various camps, including the Impact of Olympics on Community Coalition (IOCC), a group consisting of a broad group of academics and environmental and social activists. Critics accused provincial government of committing considerable funding to Olympic projects, despite recent and severe cutbacks on healthcare, education and housing.

The lack of affordable housing, and the absence of a provincial housing plan, have led in recent years to a growing homelessness crisis. It is concentrated, but not limited to, a geographic area of two-kilometer-square, called the Downtown Eastside (DTES) – an inner-city community rife with a myriad of public health issues such as mental illness and addiction. Once home to thousands of low-cost single occupancy rooms, the area has seen hundreds of closures and evictions in recent years. Many social housing advocates – including the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) and Pivot Legal Society – point to Olympic-related speculation as a main cause leading to the displacement of the poor.

Over a 24-hour period last March, The Greater Vancouver Regional Steering Committee, with the help of over 600 volunteers, conducted the 2008 Homelessness count. Preliminary figures indicate that the number of homeless people in Metro Vancouver has increased by 19% since the previous count in 2005 – an increase of over 131% since 2002. The report also acknowledges that the homeless count process is, by its very nature, an undercount.

Aboriginals, which represent just 2% of the city’s overall population, account for over 30% of the homeless, and Aboriginal women are proportionally even more over-represented. In fact, 70% of the entire Aboriginal population in Vancouver is concentrated in the DTES. However, support services and emergency accommodation do not reflect this, and there is a lack of adequate facilities and services aimed specifically at this group.

Some people argue that Olympic development will have an even more specific impact on the larger Aboriginal community. First Nations activist Gord Hill of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation has said that land development and resource exploitation "prohibits Native people from going out on the land and gaining the sustenance from the land in traditional ways".

As far as the environmental issues are concerned, the fact remains that forecasts indicate that ski venues are becoming a very sensitive, and diminishing resource. Other concerns include air quality and the expansion of the Sea to Sky highway, which threatens the unique ecosystem of Eagleridge Bluffs.

One is left with the question: Will the legacy of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games truly be one of sustainability?

Valere Tjolle
Research by Aimee Epp