The Cost of the Toronto G20: A billion dollars well spent?
In nine days, Canada's largest-ever security event will arrive in Toronto. The Mark looks at some of the social and economic costs of the G20, and asks whether they're justified.
Experience Canada Alley
by Tasha Kheiriddin
Columnist; author; member of National Post editorial board.
- First Posted: Jun 17 2010 05:26 AM
- Updated: about 6 hours ago
Estimated cost: $1.9 million
The National Exhibition's Direct Energy Centre, which is the designated nerve centre for G20 media, will house the $1.9 million, 20,000 square foot exhibition centre. The price tag includes all labour, design, and consultation costs.
Precedents: The Mark News spoke to Beverly Morrow-Jones, an Executive Director of Visit Pittsburgh and one of the organizers of The Pittsburgh G20 Partnership, which was contracted to create a media outreach program on behalf of the city when it hosted the G20 in 2009. She pegged their budget at around $1 million, a figure that includes all media activities (for example, pre-summit press conferences in Washington DC and New York City; and a pre-summit press tour of the city of Pittsburgh); an online press room offering story ideas, media contacts, and film and photographs of Pittsburgh; volunteers; receptions; training; T-shirts; the Visit Pittsburgh contract; and a downtown welcome and media centre.
When The Mark News repeated the cost of the Experience Canada Alley to Morrow-Jones, she laughed and exclaimed “Don’t they realize that they [the press] are always at the [summit] site? They don’t have time to be anywhere else.”
Quick Facts: Besides the infamous fake Muskoka lake, the pavilion includes a fake Toronto cityscape, bridges between three different sections, free food and wine tastings for journalists, a giant flat-screen television, and 24-hour staff. Construction will begin before the G8 summit in Huntsville, and it will be torn down following the G20.
Harper has called the display "a $2 million marketing project."
The Globe reports that the cost is being split between provincial and federal governments.
Quotable Contributor
"Spending on unnecessary items is completely unjustifiable. Gazebos and fake lakes are not required to host a summit. Canada's natural beauty speaks for itself, and does not require the construction of Potemkin villages for enhancement. This kind of spending represents patronage at its worst, basically shovelling dollars into Minister Tony Clement's riding, when they could be left in taxpayers' pockets.
Is all this worth it for three days of meetings? Absolutely not. Instead of showing our best face to the world, Canada has become an example of how not to host a summit. The costs are indefensible, and the government should be ashamed." Tasha Kheiriddin
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