VANCOUVER - As the international press learns this week how much it will cost to cover the 2010 Winter Games, activists hope they'll also learn how much the Olympics are costing Vancouver.
A three-day world press briefing, which began Tuesday, will see over 200 members of the media touring Olympic venues, wooed by tourism officials and learning the nuts and bolts of covering the Games.
At the same time, community groups are holding their own briefings in an attempt to garner international attention for issues like homelessness, the encroachment of native rights and the environmental destruction they say are also part of the Olympics.
"Because media are going to be going to the actual events themselves, it's also an opportunity for (the organizing committee) to explain the benefits of the Games and what's going to be happening over the course of three weeks," said Am Johal of Impact on CommunitiesCoalition, a group that doesn't oppose the Olympics but is pushing for more inclusion by local residents.
"Because international media are here they should get the full story of what's actually happening here."
By one count, over 1,300 affordable housing beds have been lost in Vancouver since the Games were awarded and rates of homelessness have continued to rise.
The local organizing committee has already committed half of its $500,000 budget to try and alleviate housing concerns during the Games by funding additional beds at a youth shelter.
They are also turning a number of beds from the athletes villages over for sustainable housing after the Olympics.
While Johal, along with local legal and civil rights advocates, didn't ask for a place at the press briefing table, they said they felt they should have a spot so they can tell international reporters about the issues.
But a spokeswoman for the organizing committee said the briefing is not the place for community groups to have a role.
She said most of the journalists are not there to file stories.
"They are here to understand where they are going to plug their computers in, where they will be staying, where will they get their meals....," said Renee Smith-Valade, vice-president of communications.
"There are other journalists who are coming to the city on a regular basis and they are filing stories and they are interested in learning about the Games and this group could certainly talk to those journalists and I think they'd be interested in hearing from them."
While the Impact on Communities Coalition held a small, sparsely attended press conference Tuesday morning to outline their concerns, other groups were more direct.
Members of the Olympic Resistance Network, which oppose the Games entirely, handed out press kits and flyers to reporters going in and out of the convention centre where the briefing meetings are taking place.
They'll also be holding their own press conference on Thursday in Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside.
Network member Garth Mullins said his group doesn't want to see the poverty-stricken neighbourhood exploited "to make sexy TV," while there are so many issues there.
"We want to enlighten people as to what's happening," Mullins said.
"I think a lot of people from around the world when they visit Vancouver are very surprised to see this particular postal code in the midst of so much of an economic boom and I think the international media might likewise be surprised."
Even some athletes took advantage of the media presence, holding a news conference about a lawsuit over women's ski jumping just outside the convention centre where the world press briefing is taking place.
Deedee Corradini, the former mayor of Salt Lake City and president of Women's Ski Jumping-U.S.A., said the timing was intentional. She said 99 per cent of people don't know that women ski jumpers will not be included in the 2010 Games while their male counterparts will be.
"This is an issue we are not giving up on. I think people thought we would give up after we were told no."
