2010-02-14
OTTAWA – The City of Toronto has asked Ottawa to relocate this summer's G20 summit to prevent Canada's biggest city from being "severely impacted" by the event, according to a Toronto councillor.
In a letter to his constituents this week, Councillor Adam Vaughn warns the summit could cause "serious disruptions" to the city's downtown core.
"Summits such as this in Quebec City and Seattle have presented serious challenges to host cities. Anti-terrorism precautions, crowd control and the reality that these meetings usually draw large numbers of protesters, will mean that much of the ward will be severely impacted by security initiatives," wrote Mr. Vaughn, who represents Ward 20 in Toronto, where the summit is expected to be held.
"I have received a 'classified' briefing so far. There will be serious disruptions. The security perimeter will be much larger than the area affected by the recent NFL games, and the protests are expected to be larger than last spring's Tamil demonstrations."
Canada was originally supposed to host a meeting this summer of the G8 leaders in the cottage-country town of Huntsville, Ont., north of Toronto. But the federal government decided to expand the summit to include the G20 countries after it became clear that organization had become the dominant forum for dealing with the financial crisis and other economic issues.
The G20 summit will be held June 26-27 and is expected to take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, a stone's throw from the CN Tower.
The G8 summit will still be held in Huntsville on June 25-26.
If held at the convention centre, the summit would affect one of the city's busiest areas for business, tourism and entertainment. The convention centre lies at the edge of Toronto's financial district and is also close to the Air Canada Centre and transportation hub Union Station.
In an interview, Mr. Vaughn said the exact location of the summit still hasn't been revealed to the city.
"All I know is that it's in my ward. So far we've been told what to do by Ottawa, but they haven't been very helpful in assisting us with how that's going to happen, and if there's even going to be funding," he said. "I hope this doesn't become another sharp stick they stick [in the] eye of the City of Toronto."
Mr. Vaughn said the city would prefer the summit to be located at Exhibition Stadium, which is slightly removed from Toronto's downtown core. He said Ottawa has so far balked at that option.
He said federal officials didn't know his ward includes several large condominiums, whose residents might be stranded during the summit. He also said the federal government should be prepared to compensate businesses in his ward that are adversely affected by the event.
"Quite frankly, this is not something a homeowner in [the Toronto neighbourhood of ] Scarborough should be paying for. The federal government should be paying for this. It's their summit."
A spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office said the government has been consulting with "all partners" involved.
"Obviously, when an initiative of this magnitude comes to a city, you have to work with your partners there to make sure everyone's on the same page," said Andrew MacDougall.
The government is also doing its best to balance the need for security with concerns from residents and businesses, he said.
"When you organize an event like this that brings in heads of state and government from the 20 biggest players in the world, security is obviously a big consideration," said Mr. MacDougall. "It's one that we want to make every preparation for, while ensuring disrupting as little as possible."