Occupy Calgary protestors who are "squatting" at Olympic Plaza are costing the city approximately $40,000 in additional maintenance fees and media coverage is spurring them on, says Tom Sampson, spokesperson for the Calgary Emergency Management Agency.

“These people need to leave on Saturday, that is the appropriate thing to do," Sampson told media this afternoon. "I think that we are working hard right now and in fact bringing in special equipment in order to have the park ready (for an event Saturday), but the bottom line is they are damaging the environment of that park. And I was just speaking with the parks manager who advises me that he’ll have to spend up to $40,000 in terms of some of the extra costs to get the cleanup done quickly, to repair the loam that’s been damaged, those sorts of things."

He adds that the number could rise, because there is no telling how long the protest will last.

Members of Occupy Calgary have apparently worked with organizers of the Muslim Heritage Day event planned for Saturday, but Sampson says that's not really good enough.

“Anytime that you’re planning an event, you don’t look to have a bunch of folks who are squatting on land join your event."

However, Sampson also says the city has no intention of forcing protestors out of Olympic Plaza, where 30 to 40 tents have been set up since mid-October, and that neither the police nor the city intends to create a violent clash.

"We certainly don’t want to have a situation like they had in Oakland [where police used tear gas to disperse Occupy protestors], we don’t believe that’s appropriate and we think that we would rather talk than get into an altercation and I’m pleased with the way that the police service is handling this matter."

Sampson didn't offer a solution to remove protestors from the park, but chastised the media for what he perceives as their part in the movement.

"We do believe it’s unfortunate that Occupy Calgary gets, frankly, so much media because in some ways I think it spurs them on,” he says.

Phillip Vernon, who was handing out copies of a document called "Why We Ought to Occupy" at the campsite, says he thinks the city will put any price tag on the protest if it gives them a reason to end it.

“I’d heard a lot of people say that we had cleaned up the park to a degree that it hadn’t been in a long time. Someone (was) quoted as (saying) it had been an 'animal house' before we got here," Vernon says. "The people, the overall vibe of the area, that it was just kind of really a scary sort of situation and we could just as well bill them for the amount of community service that we are doing here.

"We are helping homeless people, we are doing lots of different things. There are lots of numbers, there are lots of things that they would love to put against us, numbers like that, they’re going to make them as high as they can to try to justify any reason they can to make us leave."

Related: And Occupy Calgary manifesto of sorts, does it help them or hurt them?

Vernon says he has heard only supportive words for the movement: "I don’t see anyone keeping away from the park because of us. I see schools of children coming in and playing and having a great time. And people love to come and see this and see what’s going on, so I don’t know where all these people are that don’t like us being here, they don’t come here and tell us that, no one is coming here and saying get out of our park."

Technically, the city, has asked repeatedly for them to get out of the park.

And that is a request Sampson reiterated several times this afternoon: "We believe that the Occupy Calgary folks should move, that in essence they’re causing damage to the environmental situation. That park was never intended to be an overnight area, it’s a day use area and damage to the environmental aspects of the park are occurring."

So for now, nobody is going to force the protestors to move. They're only going to plead peacefully with the peacefully assembled protestors to please champion their cause another way.

What do you think of the Occupy Calgary protest in Olympic Plaza, are they cramping your lunchtime plans?

City crews shovel melted water as part of adjusted maintenance at Olympic Plaza. Blog photo by Zoey Duncan/OpenFile.