VANCOUVER, British Columbia The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports that many Canadian motorcoach companies are upset because they didnt get contracts to provide transportation for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics.

In its report, the CBC quoted British Columbia coach operators and others who said not enough Canadian companies got contracts for Olympic transportation.

The CBC noted that the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee had hired Florida-based Gameday Management Group to coordinate transportation for the Winter games, prompting some Canadian operators to suggest an apparent pro-American bias by the organizing committee.

"We're hosting the games. It's our taxpayer money being spent on this, so the local carriers should be given a fair shake," Brendan McCullough of McCullough Coach Lines in Victoria, B.C., told the CBC.

"It seems to me that the Canadian carriers, and in particular the local carriers, are being passed over for carriers in the states," McCulloch added.

McCullough said Gameday Management is leasing hundreds of buses to shuttle everyone from athletes to journalists and spectators at the games, but the U.S. company isn't including enough Canadian vehicles.

"Our drivers are experienced in mountain driving and snow driving so to bring coaches from the south of Texas to operate in Whistler in winter conditions doesn't make any sense to me," said McCullough, whose company has been in business for 30 years.

"I had a phone call from a Texas operator who is sending 20 coaches and he was wondering if he needs to put winter tires on," McCullough said.

A company can command $1,800 a day for a bus and two drivers. And the potential of 30 days of Olympic work would come at a slow time of the year for the industry.

Last year, both provincial and national bus industry associations wrote to the federal government, expressing concerns that U.S. drivers would be fast-tracked for work permits.

"Did they search enough in Canada to ensure Canadians are doing the jobs?" asked Brian Crow, president of Motor Coach Canada.

Crow admits that some local operators weren't selected because they missed application deadlines and have aging bus fleets.

About 1,000 buses are now in place for the games, with two-thirds of them coming in from the U.S.

VANOC officials maintain the process was fair, and said deadlines were extended to ensure Canadian companies could compete. And they said its possible still more buses will be needed.

"We want every Canadian company who wants to be part of the program to have a chance to do so," VANOC communications vice president Renée Smith-Valade told CBC News.