British Columbia presented its 2010-11 budget on Tuesday, containing a $1.7 billion deficit, and said that it will have to monitor closely whether unexpected Vancouver Olympics expenses will need to be covered by the government.
The Liberal government stated that budget surpluses are expected to return three years from now.
B.C. previously agreed to shell out $765 million to aid hosting the Olympics, including $79 million to cover unexpected costs. But Finance Minister Colin Hansen suggested that the expenses could be much higher because of security costs.
“We are not expecting them to be so great that it will be considerably above that,” he said to the provincial legislature.
The Games were in large part privately funded with an operating budget of $1.7 billion, but issues with weather forcing snow to be trucked in and canceling tickets in the thousands created higher expenses and lower revenues. However, merchandise sales were higher than predicted.
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