Canada Winter Games Score Well on Survey
Results to question “Was the Canada Winter Games a good investment for the City of Prince George?”
Prince George, B.C.- The Canada Winter Games boosted civic pride, and will likely increase tourism to the area, at least that’s what respondents to a special survey on the impact of the Games believe.The survey was conducted by students in a political science class at UNBC. They gathered the responses from some 393 people in the community and 82% said they agree or strongly agree the City should hold similar events in the future.
64% said they agreed or strongly agreed the Games increased civic pride in Prince George and 70% believe the Games will increase tourism in the region.
Councillor Brian Skakun asked”Did any of the respondents know the cost of the Games when they responded?” The students said some did, some didn’t, then Councillor Skakun suggested a new survey be done with local businesses on their take on the Games, “As we know, it wasn’t a win win for everyone” said Skakun who added some businesses thought the economic impact would have been much better than it actually turned out to be.
Councillor Murry Krause agrees a survey on local businesses and the impact on them “would be very helpful for the City of Prince George.”
Mayor Lyn Hall says the support for going after other major events is a positive note “It proves to us, we’re on the right track to start to try to attract other similar events, the Senior Games or the Memorial Cup, those are major events for a city and I’m going to walk away tonight specifically with that.”
Comments
They can host any games they want as long as we are not going to be taxes to pay for it.
Not a word about cost or anything. Tell us what we lost financially, and we will give our answer weather or not we should do other games like this. The polls covers UNBC students mainly. Of course they would love all the hype. None of them contributed. Ask the businesse people that lost money. Ask the taxpayers. Problem is, it will not look good to the public. Therefore it will never get printed. Just saying.
Kudos to Brian Skakun for bringing up the points he did.
They probably went out of city limits and got all the freeloaders in Pineview to give their opinion.
I would support a survey of businesses in PG who would have been involved in catering to the needs of our athletes, coaches, families and visitors who attended.
There were no additional 15,000 people in PG at one time. From my perspective, I would be surprised if there were an extra 4,000 to 5,00 at any given time.
I have received input from a number of restaurants as well as hotels and they were not as busy as they expected to be.
Example: The Civic Center fed most of the athletes and coaches. So, not much of a benefit to the local restaurants.
Parking downtown was supposed to be a nightmare. It wasn’t. Because many people avoided the downtown altogether. (Backfired)
393 people.. That’s not a sample of pg.. That’s a joke.. And asking for another survey is just a waste of time.. Maybe skakun can come up with some useful input for a change..
Instead of all this how about we see real numbers.. What was the true total cost of the games.. How much are us pg tax payers on the hook for.. And when will we see the end of the winter games tax ?
God damn it – stop complaining. The Canada Winter Games was the best thing that’s happened to this city in decades.
It raised awareness about our community nationally, it generated an incredibly positive social response locally and it elevated all of us above the ‘dirty mill town’ stereotype that we’ve been fighting against forever.
If you don’t like living here, and you think it’s an economic sh*t-hole, move away.
There are armies of us who oppose the negativity of the Jurassic posters to this site – those posters are predictably shut-ins and retired union workers with personal vendettas and chips on their shoulders.
Ask yourselves and respond honestly – ‘could I do any better if I were in charge?’
Free loaders in Pineview ,,, don’t get it ???? PrettyGoofy101
Best thing that has happened here in years ,, agreed.
Tax dollars going towards something I am not interested in sucks.
Hype-loving university students who don’t pay taxes suck.
People who live outside of city limits suck.
That businesses couldn’t sit back and wait for magic to happen sucks.
Small sample sizes suck.
…oh wait, this is only the opinion of 5 people of Prince George. Thankfully we are not all negative and jaded.
VOR, I have to agree with you! The City received glowing accolades from what seemed like the vast majority of coaches, athletes and other visitors to our city. I must say that I was very proud to talk with visitors and to tell them that I live here! I had (or I took) the opportunity to meet and chat with people from all over Canada, from other parts of BC to Newfoundland to the Territories. Nobody seemed interested in complaining about Prince George. Instead they were full of praise for anything and everything that had to do with the games!
No town, city or village in Canada is perfect! Prince George is certainly not without it’s faults. Perhaps one of our worst faults is our propensity to beat up on ourselves. How sad is that!
There are actual economic impact studies that are usually completed for events of this magnitude. Anybody on City Council actually ask the Host Society if they or the Canada Games Society completed one?
It would likely be more comprehensive and valuable than a simple survey of a few hundred residents that asked their “opinion”.
An economic impact study with a solid methodology such as that adopted by Hockey Canada and other national organizations is referred to as STEAM (Sport Tourism Economic Assessment Model) and it would be much more valuable than people’s opinion.
It uses hard data to determine how much economic activity was generated both directly and indirectly as a result of the games. These types of events are great for civic pride, tourism promotion and revenue for venues and ancillary facilities (airlines, hotels, etc.) but not everybody walks away with money falling out of their pockets and that is okay. It is the overall benefit that matters.
As for what the games cost, didn’t all the local tax dollars go towards capital improvements at the Kin Centre and elsewhere which also got Federal and Provincial tax money so the benefit of that investment will continue for a long time.
So it was a poll of .05 percent of our population give or take and the pie chart WTF?
If you take it as I see it the answer is pretty vague, It’s not laid out with any sort of logic, the only thing I can really figure out is neutral.In any case there are two spots for “strongly agree and agree” if one was to assume the two largest pieces of the pie were those they are a long way from 82%.
Lyn Hall I voted for you and you already have me shaking my head, I ask you what shall we give up next to host whatever the hell you and council et al at the cost of our infrastructure.
Curmudgeons corner comes through again.
I think I’m done with the comments on this site. Life is to short. You losers really need to get out of your basements once in a while.
393 is a good sample size for stat purposes for a city the size of PG. My question is, why does UNBC go to city council whenever they have a class project?
Do the silent majority really care the winter games were held in PG. Probably not. Do they care if their tax bill went up a few bucks to help finance the games. Again probably not. Did they attend the events. Probably not.
The games were really a rah-rah booster for the few thousand people involved.
As for the usual comments like if you don’t like it move. Isn’t everyone entitled to their opinion. Don’t see anyone saying if you are a supporter of the games move and support some other community in their endeavors to attract sanctioned events.
As for the survey taken. Of course it was destined to come out in a positive fashion. You can be assured if the survey had a negative outcome it would have been buried and never seen the light of day.
At the end of the day PG citizens are still plagued with pot holes, unswept streets,
broken curbs, smelly air, and a grubby downtown. As for the rah-rah we see a sea of white in certain hockey arenas supporting their teams during the playoffs. PG has its own sea of white and it is the cigarette butts covering the lawn outside the UNBC hospital.
The Games were good.
The Games were good for the city.
I miss the Games and the nightly entertainment.
I wish PG was as lively every day and night.
What’s next ?
Bring it on.
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