VICTORIA - Until 14 months ago, the planning, building and job creation that comes with the 2010 Olympic Games was good for BC, earning this province about a billion dollars and tens of thousands of hours of employment for its workers.

Those are some of the conclusions from a report by audit firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and the Campbell government was quick boost the results.

But here's the thing, the report only measured the benefits the Olympics brought between 2003 and 2008; a time when the BC economy was on fire anyway.

Put into context the results might be described as a little milquetoast.

Consider $1 billion dollars the games brought over those five years amount to less than one per cent of the value of BC's GDP - the total value of the economy.

And, the three-to-four thousand jobs created?  Keep in mind this province employs about two million people at any given time.

The report does not compare the amount of money we've spent on the games to how much has been earned.

One place the report says the pre-games earning haven't measured up at all: tourism earnings. Visitors just haven't been coming to BC before the games to the extent that was projected.

The tourists are expected to show up en masse after the games. And that's just what the province is banking on.

Stuck deep in a recession, BC's real Olympic reward is far from certain: in February, Finance Minister Colin Hansen told us it was $10 billion.

Yesterday, he backed off that figure.

Still, BC's Olympics Minister, Mary McNeil, maintains the games could earn $4 billion.

So will going for gold actually earn BC gold? Or will taxpayers finish last at the games?

That is for another report.