why would we support this? Just to support the one term mayor-better we send him the message that roads and infrastructure are more important!!

Can we show up in our shorts & t-shirts & protest instead?

Where do we stand if we want to oppose the games in PG and support them for Kelowna?

Be careful what you wish for PG.
These venues are politically and corporate motivated, at the expense of taxpayers.

Kamloops is looking at a huge new mall with arenas, waterpark, shopping all other kinds of great things, Abbotsford the same. We in Pr Geo are getting a cop shop and Boundary Rd.

Read my lips "NO".

No , Rodgers , Krause and Skakun. I don't want to pay for a performing arts center, winter games or Skakuns legal bills. And I sure as hell want you three to resign now!!!

Don't listen to all the naysayers! Prince George needs and deserves the Winter Games...it will the best thing that ever happened to this place.
The millions of tax dollars are being spent by the province and feds no matter what so if you want them to go to Kelowna or Kamloops (yet again) don't suuport it.
I for one am 100% behind this, and I know many, many, many folks who are as well.

So get out there in August and put on your snow clothing on and be supportive. How ridiculously unprofessional will you all look. We WILL be the laughing stock of BC along with the most in debt after all is said and done! 111 million is obviously not enough for some.

Are the promotion signs going to be in English? The ones along Hywy97 sure aren't now.

"I for one am 100% behind this, and I know many, many, many folks who are as well"

Well, I'm 100% against this and I know many, many, many folks who are also against it. Looks like the majority actually are. I'll bet they don't get more than a handful of people out this morning.

Residents Urges City to Show Support for infrastructure

They never talk about displacement.

Displacement is where a huge number of people come to town and take up all the facilitys like, Hotels, Motels, Bed and Breakfast, etc. For the winter games this amounts to apporx 5000 atheletes and officials. These people displace for two weeks the people who would normally come to Prince George from Kitimat, Houston, Smithers, Burns Lake, Vanderhoof, MacKenzie, McBride, etc; etc;.

When they do the numbers they give you a huge revenue figure for the people who came to town, however they do not subtract the lost revenue from people who would have come to town but did not because there was no accomodation available. So we would have some loss of revenue in the grocery stores, malls, hotels, casino etc.

So the number we would be looking for is a net revenue number, and of course that number is not available, so all the numbers for additional revenue are suspect.

The City will have to come up with $9 Million dollars for this event, which they hope to get from sponsorships, if there is a shortfall we will have to pick up the tab.

So all in all it is about additonal revenue for business, and of course a competition for the atheletes, their coaches, and familys, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

You will notice that when they name other games and quote numbers they used Bathhurst NB as an example. However very seldom do they mention the last Winter Games that were held in White Horse Yukon. Why is that?? Could it be because the numbers are not high enough??

Have a nice day.

wow, these comments are depressing...

Depressing on one hand only because our gov't has allowed things to get to the point we can't afford this crap and the only ones to benefit will be business.

On the other hand if you feel that people who are expressing their true feelings regarding an issue depressing, oh well.

The Winter Games...no thanks, I can't afford it. My taxes are high enough already. Before we even think about frivolities let's pay some of our debt down folks. The Olympics were touted in the same way these games are and well....you know. Have we learned anything yet?

nope, just the overly negative majority of the 'true feelings' expressed. I will be 'expressing' my 'true feelings' and some PG pride by participating today. Have a positive day, everyone!

To be against something is not negative. When will people understand that there are other views on issues.

At one time to attend a public hanging or stoning was considered to be a postive thing. I suppose those who didnt attend were considered negative.

Each and every taxpayer is entitled to their opinion on the expenditures of their tax dollars. Problem is the :Politicians, and some business's seem tho think that the spending of taxpayers dollars is their sole right, and people should not complain. Where did this idea come from.

There is nothing wrong with reducing spending, reducing taxes, reducing the cost of Government, and becoming more fiscally responsible. In fact, that is exactly what we should be looking at.

Whats the chances???

The Winter Games folks will probably get the best vehicles with the best shock absorbers and soft springs so when they travel around Prince George on our outrageous streets they won't tell the driver to slow down so they can read the signs.

Right on Palopu and Dragonmaster...I totally agree.
Mountainman...this has nothing to do with negative or positive. It has everything to do with money and our opinions. We do have a right to express our opinions just like you do. If I can't afford something at home, I don't buy it. Our politicians seem to think it's ok to spend MY money however they please. If I ran my household like they run our country, I would have gone bankrupt years ago & would probably be in jail for fraud. This should go to referendum & we should have a say. It's just big business lining the pockets of the politicians to get what they want and the hell with what the MAJORITY of the people want. It's just not right. The government is reducing education and health care, yet they increase spending on games for a select few, the ones that can afford it while the majority can't.

There are many ways to calculate multipliers and many who specialize in their calculation. Such calculations are not exact science. However, there are typically indicators which can be used after the fact to determine how representative the multipliers have been.

When one deals with repetitive large events such as the Canada Games, Olympics, Soccer World Cup, Cannes Film Festival, New Orleans Mardi Gras, etc. one normally has the best of both worlds of prediction plus post event verification.

The figures used for the Canada Winter Games are based on past experience in other locations. They deal with in increase in economic activity above the norm, thus the displacement factor is internally accounted for.

Displacement factors in themselves have to be examined on a regional basis since they would be different for a community that maxes out its visitor infrastructure and a larger centre which would not.

A surplus of 3.3 million on PEI 2009 SUMMER games http://www.canadagames.ca/Content/NewsHome.asp?mnu=5&ItemID=75709

Fact sheet on the SUMMER games in PEI in 2009 http://www.canadagames.ca/Content/News/Fact%20Sheet.asp

The games were held in PEI in August. Talk about displacement!!!! That is in the midst of PEI tourist season!!

We have no tourist season here in February!!!! Displacement??? We are not talking about Whistler here! Neither are we talking about Big White or Sun Peaks. We're talkin' Tabor and Purden!!! Nothin' to displace there, that's for sure! If one or both are involved, they will both get increases in business and the publicity will be easy for them to take, I am sure.

Palopu, I expected better argument from you!! Those people who come here to shop from the outlying area and actually use hotels will come another weekend instead if they don't like the activities they find here.

I am much more concerned about another kind of displacement, those who book ahead for the weekend only and thus deny an out of town visitor for the Ganes a longer stay, gets frustrated in not being able to get a room which includes the weekend, and does not come at all or stays with freinds of friends instead and may leave a few rooms vacant.

It is one thing to be critical of an event or activity or lack therof and provide some backup with reasons. It is another to just spout off the mouth with little, if any rationale.

I find that much of the bitching here is not coupled with a rationale other than that provided by any run of the mill tightwad. :-)

"Our politicians seem to think it's ok to spend MY money however they please"

Mythoughts .... actually they can to some extent. Those who voted, and even those who did not because their lack of voting also has an impact on the outcome of an election, gave them that power. There are some legal restrictions, but they work within those restrictions.

The time you have your say that has any meaning is when you vote or when you wish to have your voice heard at public hearings on various issues or even at Council by special request.

And, of course you can get in touch with anyone of the politicians directly. Most are quite available.

Other than at voting time when you can just vote based on opinion, on those other occasions you need to have gathered your thoughts and speak directly to the point and make sense. Preferably, have a solution at hand so that the politician can see exactly what you want and determine whether they will support your point of view.

So, practice here .... try it out and see if it will pass the test of public opinion..... :-)

"It's just big business lining the pockets of the politicians to get what they want"

Exactly what big business are you talking about? Canfor or the Keg?

I know the Keg just spent some money on a building permit. Is that lining the pocket of the City?

Come on mythoughts ... be more precise, please, eh?!

"To be against something is not negative. When will people understand that there are other views on issues"

Funny Palopu, you don't seem to recognize the other views on issues in other instances, say HST for example :)

Regarding the spending of tax dollars, some of you seem to be forgetting that this money IS GOING TO BE SPENT. The ONLY decision to be made is will it be spent/invested into Kamloops, Kelowna or Prince George. There is no "don't spend the money" option on the table. Even if I thought it was a waste of money (which I don't think it is), I'd rather have the waste dumped into PG as at least we'd get some benefit out of it as opposd to some other city. As it stands, I think it would be a great thing for our community. We will undoubtedly get upgrades to Civic Facilities at a fraction of the full cost, we will get national exposure, we will have thousands of people visiting the city and spending money and heck, it will give our civic pride a boost and maybe, just maybe, some of those visitors will go home and say "You know all those things we heard about redneck PG? Well, I just didn't see them. That place is actually pretty nice". What price can you put on that?

Oh and it looked to me like there were more people out supporting this today than there were at the anti HST protest. Funny stuff eh? Maybe Opinion 250 really doesn't represent the opinion of the majority . . .

Most of the people out supporting the Winter Games to-day were kids. The balance for the most part were those who brought the kids, and of course the business community and the volunteers. It was a pretty good turn-out overall but nothing to write home about.

I doubt that you would get the same people to come out in favour or against the HST. Different issue, different crowd.

Gus. We are talking about people who come to Prince George every week-end to shop, stay in Hotels, Motels, and go to the Casino etc; To suggest that they would stay home for two weeks and not cost the City mega dollars is misleading. It is these people who do most of the purchasing in stores on the week-end etc; and they spend millions over the years. At best we would have this lost money replaced by the so-called visitors to the City, but you can rest assured that there would be a significant displacement.

The money for the most part would be paid to their local stores and they would have to pay more for the same articles. So it might be good for local out of town business, but bad for PG.