position in Vancouver City Council, threatened to kill the Olympic bid idea unless the Province agreed to implement the project as originally planned. Subsequent negotiations between the City and the Province resulted in the City’s buying the project and the Province’s paying for 100 out of 200 affordable housing units in the 536-unit project (Makarenko, 2006; Johal, personal communication, February 13, 2013). The City’s promise to hold the plebiscite also strengthened its bargaining position during the negotiation with the Province, the federal government and the Bid Corporation about the inclusion of the ICICS in the bid book. In order to make the bid more palatable for the voters, the City demanded the inclusion of Olympic social legacy commitments in the bid book. Furthermore, the plebiscite and the public dialogue around it improved the understanding of senior governments of what mattered most at the local level (Wilson, personal communication, February 20, 2012). Furthermore, as the plebiscite was looming large, the City wanted to have the IOCC, which spoke for Vancouver’s most disadvantaged inner-city residents and represented the views of many community-based organizations and advocacy groups, at the table (VanWynsberghe, personal communication, February 15, 2012). VanWynsberghe says: It was an important bid-phase attempt to engage community and make people feel comfortable with the fact that the Games were coming and deal with their concerns. (VanWynsberghe, personal communication, February 15, 2012) Notwithstanding the importance of the inclusion of social sustainability commitments in the bid book, in the IOCC’s view, “the ICICS had no teeth” (Johal, personal communication, March 28, 2012). Unlike the much-commended Multi-party agreement, the ICICS did not have a real legal force. Rather, it was a value-based, good-will statement collectively made by the Olympic parties to justify the Olympics in the eyes of the local community. In the ICICS, the Olympic partners announced what they wanted to achieve as a result of the Olympic planning process, but failed to put any “hard numbers” of affordable housing legacy or any other concrete promises in it. Therefore, the document was essentially powerless in terms of holding the levels of government to their promise of affordable housing legacy (Johal, personal communication, March 28, 2012). He says: The City should have included a legally binding document with some concrete promises in the bid book. After they won the rights to host the Games, it was very unlikely that they would take on any additional or more challenging commitments (Johal, personal communication, March 28, 2012). In 2006, the City and VANOC convened an advisory Housing Table to develop specific goals and implementation strategies to realize the five housing related commitments laid out in the ICICS, including the provision of affordable housing legacy, protection of the City’s poorest against eviction and displacement, provision of different forms of temporary housing for visitors and workers, and protection of rental housing stock. The Housing Table had 25 members, including a broad range of community organizations, groups representing the First Nations, tenants associations, housing non-profits and sector representatives. VANOC, federal, provincial and municipal governments supported the Table and were its
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