How Will $25 Million Olympic Torch Money Be Spent?

On Tuesday, the federal government announced that they would be investing $25 million into the 2010 Olympic torch relay, but they didn't outline exactly how this money would be allocated. Some people thought that it would work as a cash gift to VANOC, allowing the Olympic organizing committee to spend the funds however they see fit, assuming that these expenditures were related to the torch relay.

Apparently this is not the case. It turns out that there are "some significant strings attached to all this new money." The funds will not be used for the torch relay directly, but will rather be used to "leverage the Olympics" to build community support across the country. This follows in the philosophy that 2010 represents not only the Games of Vancouver and Whistler, but also the Games of Canada.

The $25 million will not be going towards covering the $31 million torch relay budget laid out by VANOC. It may help, sure, but the majority will be spent across the country on other related activities. And these activities are "primarily federally-led", rather than being organized by VANOC. This announcement is similar to the money coming from Ottawa for the opening and closing ceremonies.

Source: Vancouver Sun Blogs

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How Will $25 Million Olympic Torch Money Be Spent?

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