Vancouver taxpayers will know more Monday about the financial risk of building the 2010 Olympic Athletes Village. The city council is holding a special "open" meeting Monday afternoon to release more details about the deal.
But one of Vancouver's former mayors is already calling for a reality check.
"It's just political gymnastics," said Philip Owen.
"You can't say how much you're going to get back yet. Why are you jumping to these conclusions with just outrageous numbers like the citizen is on the hook for one billion dollars. Absolutely not true."
Philip believes the condos that will be sold after the Games will take care of any financial risk.
"Two or three years from now this is going to bounce back and the city has got the staying power. It's not a drain on the taxpayer," he said.
In 2006, VANOC's boss John Furlong said the 2010 Games would not create debt.
"The projects will be paid for. There's not going to be a debt to retire," said Furlong at the time.
Last week, Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson painted a different picture.
"The Olympic Village is a billion dollar project and taxpayers are going to be on the hook for all of it," said Robertson.
The Olympics are known for leading to debt. Montreal spent 30 years paying for its Olympic stadium.
But despite this, on the streets of Vancouver word of our "big owe" is not exactly raising a lot of eyebrows.
"I kind of knew it was going to happen anyway. So not overly surprised, wish it didn't happen," said one man.
"No matter what city hosts the Olympics, there's always something that's going to go wrong so here's our drama and it is what it is."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Stephen Smart.
