Despite escalating costs for the City of Vancouver over the Olympic athletes village, the Vancouver 2010 Games organizing committee says it is satisfied with its own financial plan.

The committee's board approved its new budget for the Olympics at a meeting on Wednesday, but the public won't get to see the documents until next week after the committee's partners examine it. CTV News was told the budget remained at around $1.6-billion, an amount which was unveiled in 2007.

There had been concerns too much was being cut from the budget in order to keep the Games on a safe fiscal footing in a faltering global economy.

"Absolutely everything has been reviewed. Every single account in the organization. Every area. Every function to make the budget as robust as we can on a priority basis," said VANOC's Chief Executive Officer John Furlong.

Dave Cobb, with the organizing committee, said fine-tuning has been done with an eye to keeping a strong contingency reserve in case something goes wrong.

With sponsorship commitments now topping $750 million and tickets to the Games nearly sold out, the Vancouver Olympics appear to be in a healthy financial position, although sponsor Nortel has filed for bankruptcy.

A big topic of conversation at the board meeting was the financial mess facing the athletes village,

VANOC doesn't have a direct stake in the development, though it has contributed $30 million to the project. Around 2,800 athletes and officials will stay there during the Games. The City is considering taking over the total financing for the development.

VANCOC Board chairman Jack Poole is confident the village will be completed.

But at Whistler, the use of the resort's Celebration Plaza as a medal awarding venue is in doubt.

The plaza is still under construction. By the time it is complete, the projected cost is about $13 million. The cost is split between the federal government, the Municipality of Whistler and VANOC. If the medals are handed out at the competition venues instead, VANOC will save money on security and operations for the plaza.

But plans to cut down the trees there and begin construction were approved with the understanding that this would be a major attraction for Olympic spectators who would come to see the athletes receive their medals -- and spend time and money in the nearby village.

"If the athletes don't come, then the media doesn't come and the stories don't ring out around the world with Whistler Village as the backdrop," said Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed.

"The question of presenting medals there, our view is we will probably not. But we are in discussions with the community about the overall program of celebration and what we're doing there," said Furlong.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Mike Killeen, Sarah Galashan and a file from the Canadian Press.