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"Give security a trial run before the heads of state arrive"
The date has been set and the 2010 G8 Summit manager is in Muskoka conducting an audit of the area and its services and facilities to determine what we have and what will be needed to pull off the gathering of world leaders in less than two years’ time.
Parry Sound-Muskoka MP Tony Clement announced to those in attendance at the annual President’s Ball on Saturday that the G8 Summit at Deerhurst would run June 25-27 in 2010.
But he told this newspaper Monday there will be activity in Huntsville and the rest of the region long before the three days of the actual summit.
“All of the security and entourage for each of the leaders precedes the leaders being there, so you’ll start to see activity, in some cases many weeks before those actual three days,” he said. “Secondly, the whole purpose of having this local organizing committee or local area leadership group is we want to build on those three days and make this something more than just the three days, both from a tourism, business, arts and entertainment point of view.”
In addition to the meeting of the heads of state during the summit, various ministers from the eight countries will meet in the months leading up to the summit to discuss the topics that will generate discussions among the leaders, said Clement.
While those meetings can typically occur in places right across a host country, Clement added that usually one of those meetings happens at the summit site, to give security a trial run before the heads of state arrive.
As for summit manager Gerald Cossette, Clement said Monday the top-level foreign affairs bureaucrat is likely already in the area conducting a series of audits on things like security and emergency management services.
“Then (myself) and (Huntsville mayor) Claude Doughty and (Deerhurst general manager) Joseph Klein have a meeting of the leadership group for Friday, so we will all meet with Mr. Cossette at that time,” said Clement.
The local area leadership group comprises the six mayors of Muskoka, as well as District of Muskoka chair Gord Adams, Burk’s Falls reeve Cathy Still, Parry Sound mayor Richard Adams and Grand Council chief John Beaucage.
While there are numerous items on the agenda, Clement said area mayors will be reporting back on the levels of interest in their communities for participating in events for the summit, as well as an update from Cossette on the audit process and how things are progressing from the federal government’s perspective. He added that he would like to discuss with the group a time that Cossette could be introduced to the community in a public forum.
Also on Friday, the Town of Huntsville will be presenting to Cossette its proposal for a media centre for the summit that will serve the community afterwards as a second arena pad.
Architect and engineer consulting firm Jackson Barrill Management Inc. was retained by the town on an $85,000 contract to create the proposal for an expansion of Jack Bionda Arena.
The expansion is expected to cost roughly $14 million and the town is proposing 90 per cent of that be covered by the federal government.
Roughly 4,000 members of the international media are expected for the event. Doughty has often cited this year’s Japan summit as an example of what can happen, where the Japanese government spent $25 million on a media centre, then tore it down afterward.
Aside from the media centre, Clement said he has no firm knowledge about what other facilities would be needed, only guesses.
“I think it’s best to let the experts tell us what they foresee as being needed to be constructed or whatever,” he said.
When asked if it was possible that other facilities or events for the summit may be located outside Huntsville or even the Parry Sound-Muskoka region, Clement replied, “I think one of the things that attracted the government of Canada to choose us is that you have a very secure contained site at Deerhurst that allows the leaders to kind of walk around a little bit and have informal discussions, while at the same time having a secure perimeter.”
He added, “The other thing I would like to impress upon the government is that we want everything to be fairly close by for environmental impact reasons, as well as showing off what we have in the Parry Sound-Muskoka area.”
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