On Feb 11, 2008, the eve of the two year countdown to the 2010 Olympics, Premier Gordon Campbell took to the stage and proclaimed proudly to the people of BC; “these are your games”.

What he did not say was that you, the people of BC have no right to know how your money will be spent on the games.

Wrapping another cloak of secrecy around the games, the B.C. Olympic Winter Games secretariat, which manages public funds for the event, has stopped recording minutes of its meetings.

At the same time the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games aka VANOC, has stopped supplying the minutes of its meetings to the government secretariat.

There is only one reason for this.

Both VANOC and the secretariat do not want nosy reporters and members of the opposition from getting access to these minutes using the Freedom of Information process.

The minutes, blanked out in many sections and often delayed, were one of the few places the public was able to gauge and assess what was being planned for your money.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation believes the secretariat stopped keeping minutes to prevent access through Freedom of Information saying when “people find a way of getting information, those channels are shut down."

NDP Olympic Games critic, MLA Harry Bains said the secrecy surrounding the use of

$2.5 billion of taxpayers’ money is unacceptable.

The secretariat said keeping the minutes were “not an effective management tool," - whatever that means.

The move it says is "consistent with cross-government practices and legislation."

Translated, VANOC officials and the BC Government want you to believe their spin doctors.

TheAsian Pacific Post and the South Asian Post are big supporters of the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.

We have always believed that the games will entrench Vancouver and its panoramic diversity on the global stage reaffirming its position as one of the best places to live on the planet.

However, the increasing secrecy surrounding the 2010 games is creating a credibility gap between VANOC and its supporters, let alone its detractors.

Now with the minutes gone, the media and the public has to rely on oral governance of VANOC.

That means if anything or anyone screws up, we will have to rely on hearsay on who authorized what and when.

There will be no raw records, except perhaps for carefully doctored final versions, to review the decision making processes involving $2.5 billion of taxpayer’s money.

The zeal for secrecy by VANOC is in defiance of the spirit of the Freedom of Information laws which was created to ensure transparency of governance.

If Premier Campbell is serious about accountability and this being the peoples games, his government should order the secretariat and VANOC to keep meticulous records and minutes of all that transpires with the taxpayer’s money.

VANOC should not deprive the taxpayer of the transparency required for democracy to work.