Good luck to Prince George for the bid.

A good chance to upgrade both Purden and Tabor ski hills if we get this. The other two cities already have excellent downhill ski facilities close by.

It will be an interesting competition among the three cities resulting in a lot of bragging rights for the winner.

I hope PG gets it. It is high time that an event of this size and that calibre comes to PG.

We are a shoe in if "Pothole Jumping" is added as an event!

We have hosted Events like the Summer Games in the past and our community did a great job. I know we can to it again.

Ps. We don't have the fog problem that Big White often has. So, maybe we do have an edge.

Ha ha ha.

The train doesn't even stop here anymore.

There goes our tax dollars again...still swerverving to miss the pot holes.

Let's hope we have a winter? Remember Reindeer Games? They had to haul snow to make a movie out of town.

The summer games were the BC summer games which are considerably smaller than the Canada Sumnmer games. Kamloops hosted the 1993 Canada Summer Games and are hosting the 2011 Western Canada Summer Games. I doubt they will get the Canada Winter Games, but Kelowna might.

Big White is actually the surest bet to have snow, more certain than Whistler as well as Sun Peaks, Vernon, and Penticton.

The Reindeer Games were about to leave town and go to Mackenzie for part of the shoot. The cabin built on Cranbrook Hill was sprayed with white pulp to make it look like there was snow on it.

To Longnecks1:

Most of the tax money will come from the Federal and Provincial governments. It's not a choice between filling potholes and Canada Games facilities in Prince George, it's a choice between Canada Games facilities in Kelowna/Kamloops, or Canada Games facilities in PG. Why wouldn't we want them? The community needs to get behind this for us to have a chance though.

Go PG.

"Most of the tax money will come from the Federal and Provincial governments."

Uh, need I remind you that the money the Province and the Feds get also come from us?

In any case, I saw somewhere that it would cost about $250K just to make a bid. I don't know what all the criteria are for a winning bid, but I'm sure the winning city has to look like it's not falling apart. Maybe winning the games will spur somebody to fix the roads once and for all... but I'm not holding my breath.

"Uh, need I remind you that the money the Province and the Feds get also come from us"

So do you think you can convince the Feds and the Province to put our share of that money towards roads in PG as opposed to supporting the games in some other city? Let us know how you make out on that . . .

I don't support it, never have & never will. Regardless of who wins, we all lose. That money oould be better spent in health care, education, homelessness and yes, potholes too. So much that needs to be done and not enough money to go around. $250,000 could fill a lot of potholes!

"So do you think you can convince the Feds and the Province to put our share of that money towards roads in PG as opposed to supporting the games in some other city? Let us know how you make out on that . . ."

Bingo. The money is going to be spent on Canada Games facilities somewhere. Why wouldn't you want it spent here?

Potholes, potholes, potholes! By the way complainers.....drive around the city and you will see that there are not too many bad ones anymore. Sure it's still not perfect but it's getting pretty good in my opinion.

As for money for the games. Take a look at any of our recreational facilities. Could they benefit from some money coming in to spruce them up.....Duh, yeah!!

More money in our City, bottom line. I think it's great.

This site might as well be called " Pothole 250 " because that's all half the people here want to talk about. Enough already we get it. You don't like potholes.

I say bid on everything to get every damn gov't dollar we can get our greedy little mitts on, cause if we don't they'll just give it to someone else. People seem to have this warped idea that if we don't spend that tax money on something like a games or the airport that it will cost you less in taxes.

WRONG! that moneys already budgeted. If its not spent here its just given to someone else. We need to get every cent we can get because every cent we get supports local jobs.

Hear, hear.

Not all Jaws. That was not what I said. I say get rid of them entirely, not in any city and put that money to better use, like health care & education. We can't afford the luxury of paying to entertain the few that want to watch a bunch of people skate around an ice rink or sky down a hill. Times are tough, too many people are out of work and health care spending is being reduced every day. With so many people out of work, where are the tax dollars coming from? Unemployed people don't pay taxes. Both the federal & provincial governments are in a deficit and now they want to spend more money on this. That's just crazy!

"The money is going to be spent on Canada Games facilities somewhere. Why wouldn't you want it spent here?"

One of the reason ANY city should look at this "gift" a bit more closely is because the capital cost of the facility is not the big ticket item over the long term.

Remember, the long term means one has to look at whether the facility is sustainable.

All or most of the cities in Canada have been complaining for some time that the province and feds like to grace communities with these facilities, then leave the 20 to 50 year operation of the facility to the communities.

The UNBC sports centre is the most recent case which makes that point quite clearly.

The other consideration is that the governments keep a bit of a tab on who gets what. The prudent thing to do then is for a community to look at their priorities when they have A and B and C in front of them.

Which one do you want money for since you are not likely to get it for all three on the wish or even needs list. In fact, making sure you can differentiate between wish and needs list is important.

With respect to winter games facilities, what are we missing?

X-country facilities I think we have, although they may not be big enough to accommodate the number of skiers and possibly the number of people who will be interested in watching.

Skating facilities we have - two arenas with spectator stands and three additional indoor rinks.

Curling - that could be a bit of a problem since the facilities are not up to par.

Alpine skiing - I think that is where we have the biggest challenge. However, looking at the places where winter games have been held, some of them are not really known for their alpine skiing, so the emphasis is obviously different than an Olympics. Charlottetown, Brandon, Grande Prairie, Saskatoon, Lethbridge.

The real question should then be what facility we still need in PG, how important is this facility to the community and is it supportable in the long run. In other words, what is the best bang for the buck?

And the final question is, has anyone made that kind of informed decision and are we, the rabble in the city, allowed to have a look at that information, or is this like much of the rest of the working in this City that someone else decides for us what we need to know and what we do not need to know?

Rich people spending public money for personal pleasure!

"Potholes, potholes, potholes! By the way complainers.....drive around the city and you will see that there are not too many bad ones anymore. Sure it's still not perfect but it's getting pretty good in my opinion."

I'm not sure where you're driving, but I drive an SUV all over town and it rattles over most of our roads -- I can't imagine what it's like in a smaller car. I'm not expecting perfection, but our roads are far worse than pretty much everywhere else I've been. City council has pretty much ignored our roads over the past few years and they're trying to play catch up, but they have a long way to go.