Politicians score seats for top events before public
 
By JEFF LEE, Vancouver SunJanuary 24, 2010
 
 
The federal government is using its access to Olympic tickets to give 
priority to politicians, bureaucrats and others who will get some of the 
best seats in the house during the Winter Games next month.
 
Of the nearly 1,500 tickets that the government has received, more than 
half will go to MPs, senators and bureaucrats who were able to put in 
their own orders in advance of the public.
 
At one point, the number was much higher. Ottawa was originally 
allocated more than 2,500 tickets to everything from the opening and 
closing ceremonies to medal events such as gold medal hockey, figure 
skating and speed skating.
 
But Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore said more than half of the 
$447,000 spent on the tickets will be recovered from MPs and senators 
who have to pay out of their own pocket.
 
Both the federal and provincial governments insist taxpayers are only 
paying for tickets used to advance government agendas, not for anyone 
merely to have a good time.
 
The British Columbia Liberal government has spent nearly $1 million for 
tickets.
 
Documents obtained under Access to Information by Vancouver freelance 
journalist Stanley Tromp show that before tickets were offered for sale 
to the public, Ottawa was permitted to put in orders for the 2,552 
tickets the Vancouver Organizing Committee agreed to sell to them.
 
Under the terms of the multi-party agreement, governments, national 
Olympic committees, sport federations, corporate sponsors and other 
members of the loosely termed “Olympic Family” were given access to 
tickets before the public had a chance to buy any.
 
As part of the agreement, all MPs and senators are accredited to the 
Games by Vanoc. But in May 2008, as it was in the middle of its ticket 
request process, the government decided to give parliamentarians and 
“domestic dignitaries” special access to its ticket allocations. It said 
they could buy tickets to all prime and non-prime events for themselves 
and their spouses as long as the tickets — ranging from $25 to $1,100 — 
were available.
 
In the months following that decision, government officials received 
more than 3,400 requests for 2,552 tickets.
 
But last July, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper, facing a budget 
crunch, ordered that 1,000 of the tickets be returned, most of the 
tickets the government threw back were to less desirable events. In 
fact, it kept the full allocations of the most popular sports, including 
figure skating, short and long track speed skating, as well as the 
opening and closing ceremonies. For ice hockey, where it was originally 
allocated 730 tickets, it kept 60 per cent — but most of those were for 
top draws, including the Canadian matches.
 
Not only did Ottawa receive 100 per cent of the 126 tickets it sought to 
the opening ceremony, but all but 10 of those were the best “A” section 
seats at $1,100 apiece.
 
Despite the cut in allocations, the government’s advance access to 
tickets means those politicians were still able to queue-jump over 
members of the public who had to duke it out online. Many people have 
complained about having to wait for hours in Vanoc’s “virtual waiting 
room” only to discover the tickets they wanted were no longer available. 
Of the more than 1.6 million tickets Vanoc produced, only 900,000 went 
to the public, including to scalpers.
 
By far, the largest block of tickets the government wanted was for ice 
hockey. Originally the government put in requests for 1,108. It now has 
444. The last spreadsheet the government released under Access to 
Information shows that it planned to spend $15,050 for 20 tickets for 
the gold medal men’s event, which Canada has a strong chance of winning. 
Of those 20, 18 were for the best seats at $775 each.
 
In figure skating, it put in for 34 tickets in the pairs short program 
in the $420 “A” category, was allocated 20, and indicated it still 
wanted all 34 if it could get them, along with another 20 tickets in two 
cheaper categories.
 
By far the biggest hit to the taxpayers will be for the ceremonies. The 
federal government will spend more than $135,000 on access to the 
opening ceremony, and $72,700 for the closing event.
 
Eventually, it whittled down the allocation to 1,494 tickets.
 
Moore said this week the government agreed to act as a broker for 
parliamentarians and will use the other tickets, including those to the 
ceremonies, to attract domestic and international interests, including 
business development and investments and foreign and domestic tourism.
 
“We’ve said that every single politician who is going to go to the Games 
has to pay for the tickets themselves,” he said.
 
“The Olympics are a cost of the MP themselves, not of their office 
budget, not of their ministerial budget. So if an MP wants to go to a 
sporting event, they pay for it out of their personal funds.”
 
Moore also insisted that bureaucrats who don’t have a justifiable 
business reason won’t get a government-paid ticket.
 
“They don’t get to go for fun, they only can go if it is 
business-related. If it is related to their work, they can go,” he said. 
“But there won’t be any bureaucrats or officials sitting in the stands 
watching sporting events having a good ‘ol time at the expense of 
taxpayers. That is just not going to happen.”
 
The B.C. provincial government, by comparison, was given access to 3,200 
tickets at a cost of nearly $1 million. But unlike Ottawa, it chose not 
to give any elected officials or bureaucrats access to purchase the 
tickets and instead has reserved them for advancing the government’s 
economic aims, according to Mary McNeil, the minister responsible for 
the Olympics.
 
The only MLAs who will get tickets will be those who have business cases 
that justify access or who are asked to participate in hosting events, 
she said. The rest will be given to current and future business 
partners, academics, researchers and others with government-related 
business.
 
“The people we’ve invited are current or future customers and others,” 
she said. “No MLA will attend any sporting event with these tickets if 
they aren’t required to do so in the performance of their jobs. And no 
spouses, either.”
 
Victoria believes networking with important clients at sporting events 
is a justified expense, she said.
 
But the federal government disagrees. Moore said the Harper government 
expects politicians and bureaucrats to conduct most of their networking 
outside of the sporting venues at the Canada Pavilion, ministers’ 
offices and at two hosting facilities in Vancouver and Whistler.
 
“Taxpayers will not be paying for any sporting event for any politician, 
including myself and any minister,” he said.
 
Unlike the federal Conservatives, the opposition New Democratic Party 
and Liberal Party refused to participate in the government ticket buying 
program.
 
jefflee@vancouversun.com
 
Read Jeff Lee’s blog at vancouversun.com/insidetheolympics

Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun