Security costs for the 2010 Winter Olympics are expected to come in at just under $1 billion.
Unidentified federal government officials have confirmed the new security budget figure, which is more than five times higher than original estimates from 2003 when Vancouver won the right to host the Games, according to a report in The Globe and Mail newspaper.
The initial budget was $175 million.
"I think everybody knew that the $175 million was a bid budget," Assistant RCMP Commissioner Bud Mercer of the 2010 Integrated Security Unit told CTV News. "I don't think that anybody expected that it would be the budget."
B.C. and Ottawa are splitting Olympic security costs, but are still haggling over a cost-sharing deal. The Games will be the largest peacetime security operation in Canadian history -- and will include more than 12,000 police, private security and members of the armed forces.
Costs for security for the Games was absent from this week's federal budget.
A revised budget for the Games is expected to be released by VANOC on Friday.
