G8/G20 Summit Fake Lake: 2 Million or 57K?

[RedHot25]

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/a...ke-hits-bottom

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/06/07/2867/

Tories defend $2M fake lake being built for summit

A fake $2 million indoor lake by the Gardiner Expressway is the latest example of the Conservative government’s summit spending spree that some say could hit $2 billion by the time world leaders fly out of Toronto on June 27.

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“This is supposed to be a meeting about dealing with the international debt crisis. We’re supposed to be leading the world in showing austerity and we invite them to our doorsteps to sit around a $2 million fake lake — it’s pretty ridiculous,” said Liberal MP Mark Holland.

Opposition critics on Monday raised several questionable expenditures in the House of Commons — from a new washroom dozens of kilometres away from the Hunstville G8 summit to paved roads to nowhere. Even though construction hasn’t started yet, it is the phony lake complete with Muskoka chairs, mocked-up canoes and changing scenery at the CNE grounds that captured the most attention.

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http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/201...ake-costs.html

The government is trying to correct the price tag associated with the so-called fake lake at the $1.9-million G8/G20 media centre in Toronto.

The mock lake inside the centre will actually be a 10-centimetre-deep pool, built at a cost of $57,000, a source at the summit management office told CBC News. Add in the cost of the rest of the media centre and the total goes up to $1.9 million.

Summit organizers are building the pool inside Toronto's Direct Energy Centre to showcase the site of the G8 summit hundreds of kilometres to the north in Huntsville, Ont., from June 25-26.

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The source told CBC that when the G8 summit was first announced, the marketing "message" was to bring Muskoka to the world. The original plan was to create something at the media centre in Toronto called the "Muskoka corridor." That's when the idea of the fake lake was created as part of that marketing plan.

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Reporters covering the summits will be able to get free beer and wine, plus coverage of soccer's World Cup.

[Cowperson]

Part of the backwash from these summits is a one-time opportunity for tourism branding on a global scale.

So, I guess it comes down to how cost-effective building this lake will be in that regard. Is the lake and the overlooking media centre worth the $2 million global exposure?

Will it make taxpayers money in the end? Did taxpayers get their money's worth in the end out of the large exposure of Calgary and Kananaskis for a previous G-8 Summit.

Hard to say.

I think that's where the real debate should be instead of focussing on a very simplistic argument that "building a $2 million lake is a dumb idea."

Cowperson

[mykalberta]

If this summit were held in Paris, Frankfurt, London, or New York would the costs be any lower? If yes then questions must be asked, if no then yah its alot of money but thats what these things cost if you want to hold them.

If you dont want Canada to hold these types of summits then that is a different discussion. Its obvious that Canada wont recoup these funds back from tourism, but they might get them back from increased tax revenue from resulting increased business down the road - likely not but.

[SeeBass]

I hope in the future they just hold these on some carrier group at sea.

I made a lot of money from our previous G8 meeting but the optics of these meetings show a lack of respect for the people in this economy.