Despite some apprehensions over the level of private sector funds, city council symbolically threw their support behind the 2015 Canada Winter Games Monday night.
Coun. Garth Frizzell put forward a unanimously approved motion of confidence for the host society's work in putting next February's event together.
Though successful, prior to the vote Mayor Shari Green noted that the city already supports the Games in a very tangible way.
"We all support this and we'll be supporting it after the fact if there's a bill. And that's one of the challenges, I think, that a lot of people in the community have," said Green. "Not be the Debbie Downer of the moment but we can't take our eye off the ball with respect to that. Until we're 100 per cent on all of the items that you've got we've got a ways to go."
The Games are about 94 per cent funded, according to a presentation to council from 2015 Games CEO Stuart Ballantyne.
While public sector funds from the three levels of government are all in the bank, private sector funds sit at less than 70 per cent of their goal.
"My concern is in looking at this there's a couple of things that don't have me sleeping well at night when it comes to the Games, fiscally," said Coun. Cameron Stolz. He noted that since the Games last gave an update to council at the end of March, there was only an approximately $400,000 increase in the amount of sponsorship money brought in.
"We have a number of irons in the fire," said Ballantyne. And while they're not sleeping on the shortfall, Ballantyne said the games and their marketing agency are also ahead of other Canada Games in terms of their funding timeline.
"We're not cautiously optimistic," said Ballantyne. "We're optimistic."
Part of the reason for that optimism is the fact the Games has had it's financial commitment from the province of more than $11 million in the bank for more than two years, which not only provides them with cash flow, but is also generating interest.
"My counterpart in Sherbrooke [host of the 2013 Canada Summer Games] spent every day trying to figure out how they were going to pay the bills and we never had that problem," Ballantyne said.
An issue the organizers are still sorting out is accommodations for athletes' family members. After ensuring the athletes, sponsors, medical staff, officials and all the dignitaries are housed, the city's hotel room stock is squeezed dry.
"We are working with Vanderhoof and Quesnel and a number of hotel properties to make sure we have enough accommodations to host a lot of the parents," said Ballantyne. The Games has also set up homestay and billeting programs through their website (www.canadagames2015.ca) for residents who want to help out.
