Vancouver's Olympic organizing committee is defending its decision to award a multi-million dollar contract to a U.S. company that is an official Olympic sponsor, rather than a local company.

Surrey-based Tentnology submitted a bid of $25 million to provide events tents for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, but VANOC awarded the contract to Karl's Global Events, a company based in Milwaukee, Wis.

Tentnology's vice-president Suzanne Warner said sending the multi-million dollar contract south also sent taxpayers' money out of the local economy.

"All of our success has helped B.C. The hundred employees we have pay taxes. We pay corporate taxes, income taxes. We use local suppliers. So all of that $25-million contract would have stayed in Canada, in B.C., in Surrey," said Warner.

But Guy Lodge, VANOC's vice-president of services and overlay, said Karl's submitted a better proposal. He also acknowledged that as an official Olympic sponsor, the company will contribute an undisclosed amount between $3 million and $15 million back to VANOC.

"That was part of the consideration in the overall package," said Lodge.

"But I think first and foremost, again, we went and did the due diligence with Karl's. They matched all our engineering requirements, all of our snow load requirements, and at the end of the day offered us a much more equitable deal."