<div id="headline"></div><div id="article" style="font-size: 100%"><p><!-- dateline -->VANCOUVER<!-- /dateline --> &mdash; Mounties guarding the 2010 Winter Olympics will sleep on two cruise ships at a cost that might make some taxpayers seasick, $37.5-million.</p><p>The Games' Integrated Security Unit announced yesterday that it has secured accommodation for up to 5,000 officers before, during and after the Olympics on the pair of vessels anchored at the city's Ballantyne Pier.</p><p>Security unit spokeswoman Corporal Gursharn Bernier defended the seemingly pricey contract with Cruise Connections Charter Management.</p><p>&quot;It is what an average hotel room would cost for so many of our personnel anywhere in Canada,&quot; she said yesterday. </p><p>&quot;In fact, it's more economical than staying in a hotel.&quot;</p><p>The price includes round-the-clock food provisions, servicing and accommodation from January to March, Cpl. Bernier said.</p><p>Most, but not all, of those on board will be members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which heads up security for the Games. </p><p>The floating hotels are in addition to the 214 rooms at the downtown Blue Horizon that the Olympic security unit locked up for its members last month.</p><p>Cpl. Bernier said the funds would come from the unit's only announced security budget to date: $175-million, a figure derided even by the RCMP as too low.</p><p>Last November, the security unit submitted a revised budget to Ottawa and B.C., which will share the bill to keep the Games safe. &quot;We are still waiting for a decision from them,&quot; Cpl. Bernier said.</p><p>She said that with hotel rooms at a premium, the use of cruise ships was a creative and affordable solution to the problem of accommodating so many personnel. </p><p>Not only will the plan leave more hotel space for tourists, there will be fewer traffic tie-ups, and security officers will be close to most Olympic venues in the city, she said.</p><p>Cpl. Bernier owned that there will probably be no end to jokes about having members of the mounted police spending their off-duty and sleeping hours on a ship.</p><p>&quot;But it's thinking outside the box. It's a smart way of doing business,&quot; she said. </p><p>&quot;In Vancouver, everything is surrounded by water. It will be a very safe place to sleep. Access will be restricted and secured. And no, horses will not be allowed on board.&quot; </p><p>Added Inspector Donna Kaluza, the ISU's accommodations director: &quot;I think residents of Vancouver, athletes and visitors will be reassured to know that a sizable force of off-duty security personnel are close at hand, should the need arise.&quot;</p><p>Protecting the 2010 Winter Olympics from terrorist attacks and other disruptions is expected to be the largest peacetime security operation in Canadian history. </p><p>Local police forces and the Canadian military will also be involved.</p><p>Cpl. Bernier said the ISU is still a bit short of secured sleeping quarters in Whistler, where alpine events will be staged.</p><p>She added that cruise ships were used for accommodation during the Summer Olympics in Sydney and Athens. </p></div>