City council has unanimously supported a bid to bring an international sporting event to Prince George.
"We're seeing the legacy of the 2015 Games," said Mayor Lyn Hall before calling the vote Monday night to financially support the 2019 International Paralympic Nordic World Championships.
"As I've pointed out many times the legacy is not just dollars, it's the opportunity to host other events and here we are."
Council approved up to $250,000 to cover the intent-to-bid budget, but city manager Kathleen Soltis stressed the bill would likely come to a maximum of $50,000.
"We're only at the attempt to bid stage right now and as we actually get into the bidding process, and fine tune numbers we'll have a much better sense of what the budget will be together with the funding sources," Soltis said.
At the end of 2015, the city's major event reserve had just over $382,500, council heard.
Councillors Brian Skakun and Jillian Merrick said they hope the proposed increase to the hotel tax would cover the costs of sporting events.
"I think it's a fabulous event I think it would be wonderful to host in Prince George, but my hope was that the proposal to increase our hotel tax would pay for events like this rather than have it come from reserves," said Merrick, in reference to council's support in March to increase the tax by one per cent, to three per cent.
That will take buy-in from the accommodations and Tourism Prince George has said it hopes to submit that paperwork to the Ministry of Sport and Culture by August 2016. The ministry will take a portion of that additional per cent - 0.2 per cent - which Skakun previously spoke out against for fear those funds would funnel out of Prince George, with little impact on northerners.
"I think it's an important test case for the province live up to these major events that we're hoping are going to be funded outside of the Lower Mainland," Skakun said.
Soltis said the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club was approached by Cross Country Canada to host it at Otway Nordic Centre. During the 2015 Canada Winter Games, the club hosted a similar, smaller event.
"The event includes standing, sitting and visually impaired cross country and biathlon competitions," said Soltis, reading from the report, and would bring in 150 athletes, including 25 who could be wheelchair users.
The report said the event would have a local economic impact of $1.6 million and a provincial economic impact of $2.5 million.
Coun. Garth Frizzell said the event is an exciting prospect for the city, and one it is well equipped to support.
"UNBC is the one and the one only place you can get a masters of disability management," he said. "Economically, this is going to be a boon for the city. I'm all for this."
