Critics give failing grade to idea of Olympic school supplies
Olympic committee plans to put logos, mascots on items
Damian Inwood, The Province
Published: Sunday, December 09, 2007
A Vancouver 2010 plan to sell a wide range of school supplies bearing the logos of the Winter Games and the Olympic mascots is being blasted by teachers and the NDP.
"This is a very dubious way of raising funds to pay for the Olympics," said NDP Olympic critic Harry Bains. "We suspect that the cost will be higher with these logos on than for the generic items and some parents will not be able to afford them.
"That will leave a bad taste for those kids whose parents cannot afford them."
Olympic officials put out a call late last week for an official licensee to make, sell and distribute office and school supplies bearing Olympic logos.
They would include rulers, binders, organizers, writing pads, notebooks, pens, pencils, scissors, staplers, pencil sharpeners, erasers, pencil cases, address books and lunch boxes.
Bains described using schoolkids to pay for the Olympics' operating costs as a "disturbing new low."
"It's one thing if they were to raise funds and put that money back to improve the education of our children," he added, "or if they were to use the money to improve playgrounds and encourage our children to be more active and get some inspiration from the Olympics."
Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Teachers' Federation, said she's concerned by marketing directed at children.
"There's a sense that the Olympics is just another big entity trying to market things to kids," she said. "That's a problem in society and one that the Olympic committee shouldn't buy into. But they do, big time, with all the logos around the Olympics."
Lanzinger said the federation would be particularly concerned if the Olympic-branded school supplies were to be pushed through the schools.
Vancouver 2010 officials say there's no difference in branding school supplies with the Olympic logos than with any others already on the market.
"Our licensing and merchandise program reflects the positive Olympic and Paralympic values," said Caley Denton, 2010's vice-president of ticket sales and consumer marketing. "Our products will feature imagery that represents sport, culture and sustainability, and will be made available in stores in the same way that all other school supplies are, such as items that feature Shrek, Spiderman or Garfield."
dinwood@png.canwest.com
it seems like people complain just for the heck of it.
Plenty of rooms available for Olympics, say Whistler tourism officials
VANOC only booking half of all available accommodations
Clare Ogilvie, The Province
Published: Sunday, December 09, 2007
There is lots of room at the inns.
That's the message Whistler's tourism officials want to send the world now that 2010 Olympic Winter Games organizers are close to booking the rooms they need for the mega-event.
"We know that there are 10,000 rooms in Whistler that are nightly rentals," said Diana Lyons, vice-president of operations for Tourism Whistler.
That number includes swank hotels such as the Four Seasons and accommodations offered by property-management companies, but not bed-and-breakfasts and condominium-type accommodations.
"All along, [the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Games] has said that they need between 5,000 and 6,000 rooms in the Sea-to-Sky corridor. So they are really only talking about 45 to 50 per cent of the available rooms in Whistler," said Lyons, who is worried potential guests may be shying away from booking rooms in the resort at Games time, thinking there is no accommodation left.
"That's absolutely not the case," she said.
Bruce Van Mook, who oversees management of two hotels and 200 condos and private homes in the resort for Whistler Premiere Accommodations, agrees.
"If the story is about 'there is no room at the inn,' then we can certainly refute that, because at this point there is room at the inn," he said.
Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed said the resort has been working on the accommodation supply and demand issue for months.
"It is probably our greatest challenge in trying to understand what is the actual demand going to be two years out," he said.
"Nobody has a crystal ball and unfortunately, we have to prepare for the worst. We can't hope for the best. We have to prepare for the worst and have a variety of contingencies worked out."
The resort is considering relaxing accommodation zoning so that anyone in Whistler can rent rooms to visitors.
But, said Melamed, officials are concerned that sub-standard spots will go up for rent, hurting Whistler's image, and that employees will be displaced if they rent out their accommodations for more money.
The resort has just completed surveys on how many residents and second-home owners will stay in the resort for the 2010 Games.
"It is significantly higher than we expected," said Melamed.
Expectations have been that more people will want to come to, and stay in, the resort for the Olympics than there is currently room for.
Though VANOC is close to securing all its rooms, many groups are just starting to look -- including security officials, unaccredited media, corporations, foreign government delegations and national sport organizations.
VANOC has secured 4,000 of the 5,000 rooms it needs in the corridor, said Nejat Sarp, vice-president of accommodations for VANOC. Most of those are in Whistler.
"We want everyone to come and enjoy the Games," said Sarp.
"That's across all different client groups, through VANOC, the spectators, local guests or whomever, because at the end of the day this is everybody's Games."
VANOC also needs 15,000 rooms in the Vancouver area. About 95 per cent of those have already been secured.
clareogilvie@telus.net
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