More than three years ago, I wrote a cover story about the costs of providing security for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

It was called "2010: It's the terror, stupid".

In that article, a security expert named Ron Foyle said that the $177 million budgeted for Olympic security was too low--perhaps by half.

Foyle oversaw security at Expo 86 and for the only papal visit to B.C., so he knew what he was talking about.

Tonight on Shaw TV, Vaughn Palmer asked Finance Minister Colin Hansen what the Olympic security bill would be for taxpayers.

Hansen refused to say.

Palmer asked when the taxpayers would know what the bill would be.

Hansen refused to say.

At the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, the security budget rose from US$84 million to US$330 million. The Greek government said it paid $1.5 billion on security at the much larger 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

The B.C. government is on the hook for half the security costs for the venues and the athletes in 2010.

The way things are going, we probably won't know how much this will cost until after the 2009 election.

The secrecy over the security costs makes a mockery of Premier Gordon Campbell's claims in 2003 that the Games belong to the people of B.C.--not to mention his outlandish 2001 claim that the B.C. Liberals would provide the most open and accountable government in Canada.