STORY posted on February 3, 2010 by dawn

Defence Industry has its Sights on the Olympics

A look at some of the companies cashing in on 2010 security spending

by Dawn Paley →2010 Olympics

2010 Olympic Airspace Map by NavCan

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The security budget for the 2010 Olympics is upwards of $900 million, an amount that has generated criticism and backlash from Games opponents and cash-strapped Canadians alike. But while activists lament what could have been done with such a massive sum, local and international security and defense companies aren't complaining: they've hit paydirt.

So which companies are cashing in on the security bonanza during the 2010 Olympics? There's no master list, and many contracts have been granted with little fanfare, but the details of some of the recipients of Olympic security spoils are known.

Part of the security services will be donated by Olympic sponsors and suppliers, like Panasonic, responsible for providing cameras for video surveillance of Olympic venues, and Garrett, which will provide 1650 metal detectors for the games. Other security tasks will be contracted out by various government departments.

The largest single security contract awarded to one company went to Contemporary Security Canada (CSC). They won a $97.419 million contract awarded by Public Works and Government Services Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to provide 5000 private security guards at the games.

CSC is a consortium of private security companies including US Based Contemporary Group, Alberta based United Protection Security Group Inc., and Aeroguard Security Ltd. Contemporary Group has netted security contracts for every Olympics since 2000. United Protection is a public company based in Edmonton, that has hired personnel under the Temporary Foreign Worker program, and has a special program to hire Indigenous people to provide protection for energy projects in areas with a high percentage of Native people.

In 2007, the company signed letter of intent with the Lil'wat Nation for policing the 2010 Games. United Protection personnel guard the Devon Energy Corporation's Jackfish tar sands extraction, pipelines in Central and Northern Alberta and the Keephills 3 coal fired power plant, located 70km from Edmonton, which is jointly owned by EPCOR and TransAlta.

Carnival Corporation may be one of the less expected beneficiaries of the Olympic security budget. The cruise ship company will receive $76 million in return for providing floating accomodation for police arriving during the Games.

Other security contractors have locked down smaller but still significant rewards for their goods and services. Among these are Honeywell Canada, granted $30.5 million by the federal government to supply and maintain "intrusion detection equipment" for use at Olympic venues.

Weapons manufacturers Thales Canada and Lockheed Martin were awarded a contract for an undisclosed amount in order to develop two "passive coherent location radar" systems for the Games.

Iavor Georgeff, the person responsible for Software Integration & Quality Assurance at VANOC, was a software engineer for Thales Australia for over two years. Thales Canada is heavily involved in Canada's role in the war in Afghanistan, and Lockheed Martin is the biggest recipient of defense contracts in the US.

Richmond's MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. received a $4.8 million contract to set-up and manage “perimeter intrusion detection solutions” for the 2010 Olympics. The company is a partner with Israel Aerospace Industries in a $100 million federal contract to build an unknown number of Heron surveillance drones, used over Afghanistan.

And while they might not get a direct piece of the security budget pie, Rheinmetall Canada will demo their overhauled Air Defence Anti Tank System (missile launchers with command post) in Vancouver during the Games. Once the five rings have left town, the system will be brought to Afghanistan.

After the Games have left Vancouver, it will be on to new places, and perhaps more importantly, on to new sources of funding for yet another epic security mobilization. The 2012 Olympics in London have been called the country's largest security operation since WWII, and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has already taken a consulting contract to ready Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympics.