VANCOUVER - Occupy Vancouver protesters say they doled out almost as much in services as the city says it spent on dealing with the five-week encampment.

Earlier this week, the city's manager issued a report saying the protest cost taxpayers almost $1 million, but protesters say city officials chose to spend that much money by overreacting.

Occupy spokeswoman Sarah Beuhler says the protest camp actually fed and cared for people the city or the province might otherwise have had to.

She says the camp provided the equivalent of about $90,000 in sheltering costs and another $672,000 in primary medical care.

The city says as of it spent $981,103, including $590,000 on police overtime to monitor the camp, more than half of it in the first week.

City manager Penny Ballem said in the report that Vancouver's costs were in line with those incurred in other major cities.

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