The invite only event held at the Richmond Olympic Oval to mark the one-year count down to the 2010 games cost BC taxpayers a half a million dollars. For those sleeping on Vancouver's streets, near freezing temperatures aren't something lightly survived on a nightly basis. So ask yourself this question - how many of Vancouver's homeless could have slept indoors and received a hot meal with $500,000 dollars?

Or is that sort of thinking only limited to Christmas time?