Revenue from the 2024 Ontario Winter Video games will probably be used to fund native sports activities packages.
THUNDER BAY – Metropolis council voted unanimously on a Legacy Plan to place $223,000 of income from the 2024 Ontario Winter Video games into three sports-related packages and reserve funds for future sporting occasions.
The town acquired $1.5 million from the province for internet hosting the winter video games, but it surely got here with a caveat that $100,000 should be spent on sports activities legacy initiatives.
Subsequently, Barry Streib, chair of the Video games Organizing Committee (GOC), really helpful to council:
$15,000 to PRO Youngsters
$10,000 to Particular Olympics Thunder Bay
$75,000 to the Metropolis’s Neighborhood, Youth & Cultural Funding Program (CYCFP) to be accessed by group organizations for sport improvement initiatives.
The remaining stability of $123,000 will probably be put into an occasion internet hosting reserve to bid, host, and help future main sporting occasions, multi-sport video games and different important occasions.
Based on Paul Burke, sport and group improvement supervisor, the winter video games had an area financial affect of $5.6 million.
The town contributed $250,000 and one other $50,000 for providers, in response to Burke.
Coun. Rajni Agarwal requested if town would see a return on their funding.
Burke acknowledged town contribution “ended up leveraging” the “$1.9 million in other grants.”
“The resulting legacy is the profit from the event,” stated Burke.
Coun. Michael Zussino requested if the committee is trying into putting bids for future sporting occasions.
Burke stated the multi-sport video games administrative advisory committee has been taking a look at summer time occasions; nevertheless, now that town has established a “reputation as a strong winter games host,” Thunder Bay is extra prone to win a bid for a winter occasion.
“The other thing that comes along with winter is that there aren’t as many municipalities and as many communities going for winter events. So, it’s more winnable sometimes to go after winter events,” stated Burke.
Zussino additionally requested the committee about their challenges in internet hosting the Winter Video games.
Burke stated the vast majority of the athletes are coming from southern Ontario, and when travelling, most of them can be driving.
“It’s the GTA coming to Thunder Bay. So, for us to bring the number of athletes here from a travel perspective was a certain challenge,” stated Burke.
Nonetheless, an enormous problem was the dearth of snow in the course of the winter video games.
“In the days before the cross-country events, we had people shovelling snow onto the trails, with people on snow machines getting into the bush to get snow onto the trails,” stated Burke.
Nonetheless, earlier than the occasion started, a number of sports activities, together with snowboarding and downhill snowboarding, pulled out of the video games on account of the price of journey to Thunder Bay and the dearth of obtainable flights.
Coun. Andrew Foulds stated he was irritated “that many of the sporting organizations decided” to drag out of the video games.
“We deserve games as much as southern Ontario, and I get a little annoyed by some of the discrimination against Thunder Bay,” stated Foulds.
He requested what Thunder Bay must do to indicate southern Ontario “that we’re not a second-class hosting city and that we can put on just as good games.”
Burke stated that the ministry of sport must be conscious that they would want to have 5 months’ discover of “who the athletes are and where they’re coming from.”
Nonetheless, he additionally acknowledged the issue with getting 5 months’ discover is a number of the athletes had been nonetheless attempting to qualify for the sport three weeks earlier than the occasion.
“We don’t know whether they’re coming from Toronto, Windsor, Ottawa, don’t know. In fairness to the airlines, they couldn’t put planes out or bring planes in without having that in advance. So, we really need to say to the province of Ontario and to all those provincial sports organizations, if you’re gonna come to Thunder Bay, it needs to be different,” stated Burke.
