[mrxbombastic]

It'll be a great time. I plan on partying and meeting many hot Latinas. Seeing Canada own the podium on home soil will also be good. We should have street festivals and 5am last call during this event.

Ha! This post is win on so many levels. You sir, sound like a fun person

Write your Councillors and make 4am last call permanent, I've already done it like 10 times .

Pan Am is going to be awesome. Soccer finals are like $30 for decent seats. That's nuts! I'm definitely going to the finals

 

[MetroMan]

I bought tickets for volleyball, so I'm in. I think, except for certain road closures and changes, the average Torontonian won't even notice that the Pan Am games is going on.

I think you're wrong. Look at the festivals we have in Toronto. Only a Torontonian living under a rock didn't know that Nuit Blanche or LuminaTO or TIFF were going on. The PanAm Games will be very high profile with street festivals, events and parties for each nation, lots of TV, radio and newspaper coverage.

I've got my tix for the opening ceremony and beach volleyball. I'm starting to get hyped up for this!

 

[nfitz]

I think you're wrong. Look at the festivals we have in Toronto. Only a Torontonian living under a rock didn't know that Nuit Blanche or LuminaTO or TIFF were going on. The PanAm Games will be very high profile with street festivals, events and parties for each nation, lots of TV, radio and newspaper coverage.

We know this things are going on, but seldom do any of these events have any disturbance or impact on those no living right next to them. Though TIFF managed to completely mess up the King Streetcar for a couple of workdays this year.

Some will have impacts by some small road closures, and highway lane closures. Except this time it will be because of the games, rather than construction. Big woop. If the 504 King streetcar can return to normal service for the first time since 2013 that will more than outweigh any limitations for me not being able to walk down Cherry Street during the games.

 

[salsa]

It's crap like this that allowed people like Rob Ford to be so popular.

From pricey dress shirts to tiny boxes of Smarties and South American wines, organizers of southern Ontario’s Pan Am games under fire again for questionable expenses after releasing 5,000 pages of receipts.

There were claims for $8,220 in Toronto Argonauts tickets, $9,820 in Tim Hortons gift cards, yoga pants and jackets, hundreds of international flights — including $3,800 for two adults and a child to jet to Turin, Italy, site of the 2006 Winter Olympics — a wine tour, flowers, parking tickets, dozens of catered meals and snacks, educational courses and professional dues for staff, among other expenses.

Few, if any, expenses came with explanations.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/pan...expense_claims_include_wine_tour_flowers.html

 

[The Golem]

There will be complaints about traffic and transit during the Games. I expect the Sun to have a lot of articles with people bitching about it.

I've worked several running events and even the annual, well-publicized ones that draw tens of thousands of participants have motorists try to get past the road closure and complain because they didn't know it was going on.

It's crap like this that allowed people like Rob Ford to be so popular.



http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/pan...expense_claims_include_wine_tour_flowers.html

Yes. Any time a project is funded by the gov't, there should be auditors built into the organizational process to prevent this sort of greedy abuse.

 

[junctionist]

Some people complain about everything, but it doesn't really matter. The show must go on.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Salsa, it's true that stuff like that drives people crazy. On the other hand in the private business world we call those kind of expenses doing business.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I suppose this is what happens when they want to run government more like a business - just that they haven't stated which kind.

Honestly though, governments aren't businesses - and this kind of thing have no place in it.

AoD

 

[TOareaFan]

Salsa, it's true that stuff like that drives people crazy. On the other hand in the private business world we call those kind of expenses doing business.

You see....I think the "that's how it works in the private sector" gets used as an excuse for some abuses in situations like this. I am obviously not privy to the expenses but reading that thing above I will pick on one of them and show how it would be handled in all of the 6 companies I have worked for (and travelled on business for).

The trip to Turin for the winter Olympics. Looks like one of the employees was asked/instructed to go to Turin and he/she took his/her spouse and their child.

In every company I have worked for:

Employer: We need you to go to X for Y days

Me: OK, Sounds cool.....my wife and daughter would love that city/place

Employer: Well, we are paying for the room no matter how many of you are staying in it....so if you can cover the price of their flights....knock yourself out

Me: Great, I think i can cover that

Employer: Remember you are there to work so if they can keep themselves occupied while you are doing that....great....oh, any meal expenses you submit should be just for your meals not all 3 of them.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

You see....I think the "that's how it works in the private sector" gets used as an excuse for some abuses in situations like this. I am obviously not privy to the expenses but reading that thing above I will pick on one of them and show how it would be handled in all of the 6 companies I have worked for (and travelled on business for).

The trip to Turin for the winter Olympics. Looks like one of the employees was asked/instructed to go to Turin and he/she took his/her spouse and their child.

In every company I have worked for:

Employer: We need you to go to X for Y days

Me: OK, Sounds cool.....my wife and daughter would love that city/place

Employer: Well, we are paying for the room no matter how many of you are staying in it....so if you can cover the price of their flights....knock yourself out

Me: Great, I think i can cover that

Employer: Remember you are there to work so if they can keep themselves occupied while you are doing that....great....oh, any meal expenses you submit should be just for your meals not all 3 of them.

+1. I think a mid to high level corp accountant/auditor should be among the first hires for these kind of orgs. Clear rules, a couple of denied expenses, and the idiots would fall in line.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I suppose this is what happens when they want to run government more like a business - Honestly though, governments aren't businesses

AoD

It may not be a legal corporation, but governments are certainly businesses in the transactional case. We pay govt a large portion of our earned wages or productivity in exchange for services. Sounds like a business to me.

 

[ChesterCopperpot]

The Milton Velodrome opens tomorrow for the Canadian Track Championships

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Lovely, I guess. Wow, Milton is a bleak place in winter.

 

[Tewder]

You should get out more. Milton sits at the foot of the beautiful Niagara Escarpment and has a lovely old small town centre. It is rapidly developing but remains surrounded by lovely country farms and roads!

 

[Edllguy]

Do forum members here believe that the Toronto 2015 pan am games could be a test run to bring the Olympics to Toronto in the future? Will the decision makers be watching Toronto closely to see how functional we are to put on major events?

Thanks