The 2015 Canada Winter Games team has parted ways with the man in charge of pulling in funds for the two-week event.
As of last Friday, Todd Doherty was no longer the 2015 Games' director of revenue generation.
"It was becoming apparent my political aspirations were becoming a distraction to the Canada Winter Games team, which isn't fair," said Doherty, who had already made public his intention to seek the federal Conservative Prince George-Cariboo nomination should current MP Dick Harris announce his retirement after holding the seat for more than two decades. "It was detracting from the amazing work the team is doing and I am confident that I've left the Games in a positive position to realize their financial goals in very short order."
Games CEO Stuart Ballantyne confirmed Doherty's departure, saying that the former employee had "chosen a new career opportunity and left the Games this week to pursue it" and said it was Doherty's decision to leave.
Asked if his intention to run for political office had a direct bearing on his intention to leave the Games, Doherty said he would "keep the community appraised of [his] future plans as they develop."
"I have nothing to announce outside of this and this is just another part of the distraction," Doherty said, who noted the announcement was being made with a "heavy heart."
But, he added, the 2015 Games are an "amazing opportunity" that will leave a major legacy within Prince George and the surrounding region.
"It's going to be harder for me not being part of Team 2015 but I'll be able to say that I had a hand in it," Doherty said. "And I'm excited to see the look on the faces of our community when they see how incredible of a project that this team has created and the event that this team has created."
The Games, which will have their opening ceremonies on Feb. 13, 2015, are 98 per cent funded, said Ballantyne.
"We've still got a ways to go and with that we feel confident with the current team and everything we have in place that we're going to make our numbers before the Games," he said.
That's closer to the funding target for the total $46.5 million budget than the group was when they made a presentation to city council in July. The gains were partially due to a $1 million reduction made over the summer, Ballantyne said.
"We've never wanted to get ahead of revenue and so with revenue being where it was we decided let's take some savings - we had a million dollar reduction, the majority of which was actual savings in our budget from previous years - and we did have to make some cuts, which are always tough, but it was the prudent thing to do at the time," Ballantyne said.
Making budget cuts does change how the Games are delivered, but Ballantyne said they are "confident that we're going to exceed our numbers and that will allow us hopefully to return the cuts back to their full amount. If we're not able to do that, at least we're protecting the taxpayer."
The host society won't fill Doherty's director position and instead will rely on the staff already in place and the outside partners to finish the job, Ballantyne said.
