Who remembers Jean Drapeau?
"The Montreal Olympics can no more have a deficit, than a man can have a baby," he said, a prediction that would haunt him, as construction costs ballooned and sent the final price tag into the stratosphere.
Haunt him? He got it done. That's how you get stuff done. He always got it down. He's responsible for every single metro station in Montreal, and the south shore. He was responsible for the Olympics. He got them the Expos baseball. He was responsible for Expo 67. He was mayor for the best part of 30 years, navigating the Great Darkness by the Conservatives, the quiet revolution, martial law, and the politics of separation - and did so by keeping Montreal out of the equation.
What has Montreal accomplished in the 30 years since Drapeau? Some bike lanes. Sewage treatment. At least the Expos made 3 post-season appearances ... oh wait.
Drapeau got things done. Another 30 years of Drapeau, and Montreal would have had a Metro system that would have completely shamed us. If we had a Drapeau, we wouldn't be in the dire transportation shape we are today. We certainly would have had a relief line by now.
Of course, because of the terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics, they had the additional costs of way more security than originally planned added on for the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Most of which was simply paid for by the various governments who employed the military, RCMP, police, etc., so didn't contribute to the deficit. The additional security on top of that was a whopping $1.2 million. The deficit was almost $1 billion (in 1977 $).
It may well have increased government costs, but it did not contribute to the Olympic deficit.
If the Olympics has paid the various government for security, it would have increased the deficit from $0.99 billion to $1.17 billion (though that also includes other government costs such as postal services, improvements to Kingston Harbour, land purchases, landscaping, cleaning, air-traffic control, $25 million for host broadcasting costs, $1 million for artists/craftsmen, liquor, etc.). Clearly security wasn't a significant contributor to the costs, and was not part of the deficit.
It only takes a glance at the numbers, to see that the escalation of facility costs from $250 million at the end of 1972 to $1.179 billion at the time of the games (and that doesn't include the $700 million to complete and repair the stadium after the games - recall construction wasn't completed until 1987).
Had they kept to budget on just the buildings, and all else been the same, the deficit would have been $61 million instead of $1 billion.
I think we are way, way off topic from the current DRL proposal.
Oops ... perhaps I should have read that post half-an-hour earlier. Though not completely - Drapeau got stuff done. And he might have had to tell a lie or two to do it. But imagine the subway this city would have had, if we'd had a Drapeau in power from 1980 to 2010!
