S
samsonyuen
Guest
From: www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs...9483202845
________________
Ottawa must help Toronto lure Expo
Jul. 19, 2006. 01:00 AM
ROYSON JAMES
On a glorious summer day when the Muskokas beckon and the Bay St. executive is thinking about anything but profiteering and city-building nine years from now, Councillor Brian Ashton brings the gospel of Expo 2015 to the heart of the business district.
Surprisingly, 90 people attend the luncheon meeting of the Economic Club of Toronto to hear how the 2015 World's Fair could deliver $13.5 billion in new GDP, create 215,000 jobs, provide $8.4 billion in wages and salaries, release at least 80 hectacres of serviced land with an added value of over $500 million and build an estimated 1,900 affordable housing units.
All told, Ashton tells them at the club's dining hall in Commerce Court, a Toronto Expo will return $7 for every $1 invested. If they are impressed, we don't know. They ask just two questions and rush off to the next engagement.
Club President and CEO Mark Adler says Toronto's Expo bid still has to "fine-tune the message." The event is far away, few people know Toronto's bidding, and Expo is a world event that ranks a distant third to the Olympics and soccer's World Cup as a prized catch.
In short, "it needs to be explained," Adler says.
That's not good news for the World's Fair franchise. Depending on how you spin it, it may or may not be a crippling analysis of Toronto's chances.
The paradox of Expo 2015 is that, while Toronto has all the time in the world to explain it and get business and the public onside, the city has almost no time to get federal government approval, without which there is no bid. The city must file its bid by Nov. 3, 2006 to the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the Paris-based body of 98 voting nations that decide who hosts A class fairs every five years.
That pressing deadline may be a blessing in disguise, Ashton says, for it will force a quick answer from Ottawa. Let's say his optimistic outlook is spot on. We're still left with the reality that the signals from Ottawa are far from positive. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is asking for a "business plan" that, if he means what he says, everyone knows cannot be prepared for an event that has no theme, a proposed site, no detailed plan and a ton of unanswered questions. Whatever Flaherty gets — either the blue sky forecasts from the consultant report or some other cobbled-together plan over the next two months — it is not the comprehensive examination that will come later.
Toronto is selling the future, its potential and capital as Canada's innovative centre of commerce and culture. If won, this would be the first such event in the province's history — unless you count next year's youth soccer World Cup, centred in Toronto.
Either the Harper government believes in Toronto or it doesn't.
The question is, Does Toronto have the right people speaking to the right ears in Ottawa? Does the city have anyone who has the ear of anyone of importance in the Prime Minister's Office? Not official communication — mayor to PM or mayor to finance minister — but fundraiser to party leader, rainmaker to party pollster? Mayor David Miller and Ashton and others travelled to Paris days ago to tell the BIE the city intends to bid for Expo 2015. Almost unable to contain their glee, the BIE still paused long enough to state the obvious. Toronto is a great candidate. But don't get excited until the federal government backs the bid. BIE rules stipulate that only a national government can submit a bid.
The World's Fair movement needs Toronto every bit as Toronto needs the World's Fair. Both sides have a ways to go before consummating the marriage.
Even to those who pay attention to such matters, it is increasingly difficult to recall the last great fair, the last Expo to get the world excited.
Was it Expo 67 in Montreal? Seville in 1992? It's hard to think of one since.
It's fair to say that if the BIE is to have any international relevance, it must get North American exposure. The USA doesn't host world fairs. Its membership was withdrawn in 2002 after Congress failed to pay its dues. Access to the huge American market rests through Canada or Mexico.
Ashton can read the tea leaves. The bid is winnable, if only Ottawa can be brought along.
"We can win it in Paris," says Ashton. "Can we win it in Ottawa?"
________________
Ottawa must help Toronto lure Expo
Jul. 19, 2006. 01:00 AM
ROYSON JAMES
On a glorious summer day when the Muskokas beckon and the Bay St. executive is thinking about anything but profiteering and city-building nine years from now, Councillor Brian Ashton brings the gospel of Expo 2015 to the heart of the business district.
Surprisingly, 90 people attend the luncheon meeting of the Economic Club of Toronto to hear how the 2015 World's Fair could deliver $13.5 billion in new GDP, create 215,000 jobs, provide $8.4 billion in wages and salaries, release at least 80 hectacres of serviced land with an added value of over $500 million and build an estimated 1,900 affordable housing units.
All told, Ashton tells them at the club's dining hall in Commerce Court, a Toronto Expo will return $7 for every $1 invested. If they are impressed, we don't know. They ask just two questions and rush off to the next engagement.
Club President and CEO Mark Adler says Toronto's Expo bid still has to "fine-tune the message." The event is far away, few people know Toronto's bidding, and Expo is a world event that ranks a distant third to the Olympics and soccer's World Cup as a prized catch.
In short, "it needs to be explained," Adler says.
That's not good news for the World's Fair franchise. Depending on how you spin it, it may or may not be a crippling analysis of Toronto's chances.
The paradox of Expo 2015 is that, while Toronto has all the time in the world to explain it and get business and the public onside, the city has almost no time to get federal government approval, without which there is no bid. The city must file its bid by Nov. 3, 2006 to the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the Paris-based body of 98 voting nations that decide who hosts A class fairs every five years.
That pressing deadline may be a blessing in disguise, Ashton says, for it will force a quick answer from Ottawa. Let's say his optimistic outlook is spot on. We're still left with the reality that the signals from Ottawa are far from positive. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is asking for a "business plan" that, if he means what he says, everyone knows cannot be prepared for an event that has no theme, a proposed site, no detailed plan and a ton of unanswered questions. Whatever Flaherty gets — either the blue sky forecasts from the consultant report or some other cobbled-together plan over the next two months — it is not the comprehensive examination that will come later.
Toronto is selling the future, its potential and capital as Canada's innovative centre of commerce and culture. If won, this would be the first such event in the province's history — unless you count next year's youth soccer World Cup, centred in Toronto.
Either the Harper government believes in Toronto or it doesn't.
The question is, Does Toronto have the right people speaking to the right ears in Ottawa? Does the city have anyone who has the ear of anyone of importance in the Prime Minister's Office? Not official communication — mayor to PM or mayor to finance minister — but fundraiser to party leader, rainmaker to party pollster? Mayor David Miller and Ashton and others travelled to Paris days ago to tell the BIE the city intends to bid for Expo 2015. Almost unable to contain their glee, the BIE still paused long enough to state the obvious. Toronto is a great candidate. But don't get excited until the federal government backs the bid. BIE rules stipulate that only a national government can submit a bid.
The World's Fair movement needs Toronto every bit as Toronto needs the World's Fair. Both sides have a ways to go before consummating the marriage.
Even to those who pay attention to such matters, it is increasingly difficult to recall the last great fair, the last Expo to get the world excited.
Was it Expo 67 in Montreal? Seville in 1992? It's hard to think of one since.
It's fair to say that if the BIE is to have any international relevance, it must get North American exposure. The USA doesn't host world fairs. Its membership was withdrawn in 2002 after Congress failed to pay its dues. Access to the huge American market rests through Canada or Mexico.
Ashton can read the tea leaves. The bid is winnable, if only Ottawa can be brought along.
"We can win it in Paris," says Ashton. "Can we win it in Ottawa?"