The Olympians are gone, the dough is spent. What now, Vancouver?

According to Lee Malleau, director of business development for the Vancouver Economic Development Commission, it's time to cash in on Olympic gold.

Calgary and Sydney are still reaping rewards from their Games, said Ms. Malleau, who has done trade, investment and sponsorship work in the Olympic cities of Turin, Beijing and Metro Vancouver. In the years to come, Vancouver will too, she told The Globe and Mail.

What concrete economic benefits can Vancouver expect in the first year or so after the Olympics?

We're expecting a significant increase in jobs and job performance and employment opportunities directly associated with the Games. There are a number of key sectors that we're anticipating that job creation in, primarily clean tech and green-enterprise technologies, as well as in media – live action, digital action and digital media sectors.

What about tourism?

Definitely tourism. Particularly now with our [trade] agreement with China, we're anticipating a significant increase in terms of economic impact and benefits.

The city plans to market Olympic Vancouver as a head-office town. What kind of businesses would be undeterred by our soaring real-estate prices and high cost of living?

Vancouver has a more comprehensive strategy than just going after head offices. We definitely are going after some head offices for key industries, but we're looking at how we can do that organically, as much as attracting foreign investment. One of the advantages that we have when we use the Olympic platform to tell this story is that we have one of the lowest-cost taxation regimes in the world, right here in British Columbia and Canada. So that's a distinct advantage for us which outweighs some of the costs, particularly cost-of-living expectations. Ironically, a lot of the international guests that we've invited into Metro Vancouver for the Olympic Games come from other areas around the world that have even higher costs of living and higher housing costs than we do. So it's always a matter of perspective.

Do you foresee an Olympic debt hangover for Vancouver? Could we be the next Montreal?

Absolutely not. I don't foresee that at all. That would be comparing apples to oranges. … Our planning has focused on the legacy of the Olympics as opposed to just delivering the Games themselves. Every single facility that has been invested in has a long-term legacy use associated with it and most of the projects for Vancouver in terms of Olympic venues have come in on budget and on time. So we will not have skyrocketing debts or an inability to generate a return on investment for those projects.

Will sales of athletes village condos generate enough profit to pay for the promised social-housing units?

I can't answer that question. I have not been directly involved in that project.

Pedestrian malls during the Olympics have been an economic boon. Could businesses thrive if a street such as Granville were permanently closed to traffic?

It depends on what kind of businesses are on that street and who they're catering to. You always want to be very careful when you do something like that because I think Vancouver has done a very good job of integrating mixed transportation uses – pedestrian vehicular, public transportation and bicycle. So I don't know that we would benefit ultimately from closing off streets.