It was widely reported across Canada on Monday that Prime Minister Stephen Harper had turned down direct federal funding of Quebec City's arena.
In fact, Harper did no such thing. If you read his entire quote, you'll see he is still open to paying for a hockey arena in Quebec City if it's part of an Olympic Games.
After turning down Edmonton's leaders in their bid for the 2017 Expo -- without negotiation and because of greatly over-stated if not bogus concerns over security costs -- Harper has made it clear to Quebec City leaders that his government will support a Quebec City bid for the 2022 Winter Games.
If you've been following the Olympic bid, you will know the international ski federation has put it on ice by rejecting the now third proposal for their downhill skiing mountain. So unless they are able to pull a rabbit out of their hat on that one, the bid is dead.
^Precisely. This Quebec City 2022 bid is effectively dead...unless they can strike a deal with Lake Placid, NY, but that makes the venues just too far away (~ 5 h drive!).... I suppose Harper could still score some political points in Quebec by suggesting that he would have supported a new arena if it were a part of the Olympic bid. But circumstances out of his control means that it can't happen, and so he ends up looking OK from the whole situation, maybe.
Any idea if Edmonton would still consider a 2020 Expo bid? I thought the bid theme and concept needed a lot more work anyways...seemed pretty wishy-washy. But there is some potential.
2020 would be the big fair, which if the small one cost north of 2 billion, I would be afraid of what one that uses at least twice the room, and runs twice as long would cost. (and add those things into an inflated security budget too!)
Quebec City 2022? I have high doubts that will happen mainly for two reasons lol. The first one has already been stated before that there is not a suitable location for the alpine and downhill skiing competition near the city.
The second being that there's already talks of Toronto preparing to bid for the 2020 and/or 2024 Summer Olympics, and considering that we have just finished hosting the winter olympics, it would be more likely that Toronto's bid would get the backing from the government.
Now onto the expo, I still have the belief that in the end the government will provide the federal funding needed for the expo; it's way too early to call this bid dead since the official deadline for submitting the bid is around 2012 I believe.
Last edited by blacktrojan3921; Jan 3, 2011 at 9:11 AM.
__________________ "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice. Carl Spackler, 1980
Quebec City 2022? I have high doubts that will happen mainly for two reasons lol. The first one has already been stated before that there is not a suitable location for the alpine and downhill skiing competition near the city.
The second being that there's already talks of Toronto preparing to bid for the 2020 and/or 2024 Summer Olympics, and considering that we have just finished hosting the winter olympics, it would be more likely that Toronto's bid would get the backing from the government.
Indeed. Downhill ski events are what track and field events are to the summer games... Basically the most important in terms of viewership and general appeal. There are so many towns and cities around the world which are close to worthy mountains and which would be able to host the games.
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"The destructive effects of automobiles are much less a cause than a symptom of our incompetence at city building" - Jane Jacobs 1961ish
The billion dollar price tag was just too high, I think any more complicated explanations are just attempts are kremlinology. Remember the documents released under access to information cannot contain advice to the minister, so all that has been exposed is mid level analysis. Of course a department in charge of promoting culture would be for an event promoting culture. But when it came down to brass tacks, a billion dollars for 3 months was seen as excessive.
Their review of required security should have been seen as excessive...
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"The destructive effects of automobiles are much less a cause than a symptom of our incompetence at city building" - Jane Jacobs 1961ish
Wasn't the federal governments operational / capital contribution as a one third partner in the $700 million range to start with, even before their security estimate?
A pity this info didn't come out before the election.
Would have had ZERO effect in Edmonton.
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