World Cup events financially backed by council

Organizers of the downtown events to be held in conjunction with this weekend’s World Cup can now add council’s support to the lineup.

On Tuesday (Feb. 2), council voted to contribute up to $17,000 from the economic development reserve fund to support the events.

At the same time, Canmore’s Economic Development Authority (CEDA) is getting ready to conduct an economic impact assessment on the World Cup event.

CEDA executive director Teresa Mullen said this week she is still looking for volunteers to help with the project that will measure how much money the sporting event brings into the community.

“It will show the impact in dollars on the local community and on a regional level, provincial level and federal level,” Mullen said. “We want to be able to attract world class events by demonstrating the economic effect and that builds support.”

Meanwhile, the funding motion passed by council this week may have seemed a bit last minute, causing at least one councillor concern. In fact, a delegation from the downtown business association, Canmore Rotary Club and World Cup organizers appealed to council for support earlier in January.

Deputy chief administrative officer Lisa de Soto said in planning events, including a downtown cross-country ski track on Main Street, organizers realized they would need additional financial support.

“The purpose of the (funding) is to bring vibrancy and added traffic to the downtown core during World Cup events,” de Soto said.

Councillor Corina Dootjes said by putting forward half the total budget for the event, the Town should be recognized as a sponsor.

But Dootjes also expressed concern about the “last minute nature” of the funding request.

De Soto reminded council it heard the original request during its committee of the whole meeting last month.

However, those meetings are held at 1 p.m. and Coun. Dootjes, as a full-time teacher for the Calgary Board of Education, is unable to make meetings that are not held during the evening.

The nature of the request and letters from the Business Revitilization Zone, Rotary Club and the World Cup organizing committee were also distributed to council at the time in a staff report.

Coun. Ed Russell cautioned council about using reserve funds.

Mayor Ron Casey, however, said the economic development reserve fund is meant for situations like this.

“We are getting into the pattern of supporting World Cups but that is exactly why the economic development reserves are there… for one-off economic drivers,” Casey said.

And the CEDA project is expected to demonstrate in dollar figures what level of economic driver the event is.

Mullen said the survey being used was developed by the provincial government and is being piloted this weekend in Canmore.

The purpose of the survey is that it can be adapted to any Alberta community for any sporting event to assess economic impacts.

But CEDA still needs people to help conduct the study and anyone interested in volunteering can contact Mullen at (403) 678-6902 or tmullen@canmorebusiness.com