Concerns about Edmonton hosting two major sports events in the summer of 2020, just weeks apart, have for the most part been sorted out.
The only major remaining stumbling block is federal and provincial funding for both the ITU Triathlon Grand Final that was landed a year ago, and the IAAF World Junior track and field championships that emerged as a firm possibility earlier this month.
Sheila O’Kelly, who’s in charge of the ITU triathlon, told council’s community services committee Monday that the fear is if a second event is added to the 2020 calendar, their grants could decrease.
“The main concern is the funding,” she said.
ITU was firmed up first. City council approved $2.8 million in support of the event in December 2016. Seed money was given to Track Town, which later changed its name to the Edmonton International Athletics Committee, worth $250,000 to pursue a bid.
Jerry Bouma, with the track and field bid, said they still haven’t nailed down funding from the two senior orders of government. They’re seeking $4.5 million from the province and $6.5 million from Ottawa, spread over three years. O’Kelly wouldn’t divulge specific numbers, but she agreed they were in that ball park.
It’s anticipated the economic impact of the two events is $69 million, Bouma said.
He said other considerations, including sponsorship, city services and volunteers, are taken care of.
“It’s the government, yeah.”
Once Mayor Don Iveson saw where the committee debate was going, he made a motion to engage both federal sport minister, Kent Hehr, and provincial culture and tourism minister, Ricardo Miranda, to firm up financial commitments.
“Bottom line, what I heard was if we can secure funding from senior orders of government for both events, that’s the major concern,” Iveson told reporters.
“There’s a bit of ambiguity right now about that funding and whether it’ll be forthcoming for both events so I undertook to go and try to nail that down.”
“If we can get some assurances that we’re all going to be made whole on this then why wouldn’t we want to go ahead and have two world-scale events here?” Iveson asked.
What Edmonton is up against is limited amounts of money.
O’Kelly told the committee Sport Canada only has $12 million annually for supporting events, while the province handles it on a case-by-case basis at treasury board.
Bouma said their event won’t go ahead if it doesn’t get support from the province and the federal government. He told the committee other cities in Africa had considered bidding but bowed out when they heard Edmonton was ready to step in.
Iveson hopes to be able to report back to city council on the status of the funding by the Dec. 5 meeting.
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