Red Deer’s bid for the 2019 Canada Winter Games is taking shape as the deadline for submissions draws closer.
Communities must have their proposals outlining the intention to bid with a $12,500 deposit in to the Canada Games Council by Dec. 20.
Last week the city’s Bid Planning Ad Hoc Committee put their heads together to sort out more of the initial technical details. This includes athlete accommodations, sporting venues and non-athletic places such as media centres, cultural venues and medical centres.
Communities must have the first phase of technical information submitted by Jan. 20.
In early February, the Canada Games evaluation committee will visit Red Deer to assess the technical information and look at the plans to ensure they meet the Games standards.
The shortlist of cities will be announced in February 2014 and the successful community will be named in September 2014.
“We’re just going to proceed like we have been accepted into Phase 2,” said Lyn Radford, committee chairperson. “Because it’s a short time frame after that. If we wait until they give us the go ahead in February, you lose about six weeks of time to do things.”
Radford said this second phase includes hammering out a budget for the games, rallying the community and working on the ‘feel nice’ aspects.
She said this includes the cultural experience for the athletes and what the community is capable of presenting to the athletes.
“Each time we sit down and discuss something we think of another legacy piece these games can leave our community with,” said Radford. “Whether it is a physical structure or it is some sort of social legacy, we’re really excited about engaging everybody.”
Red Deer will need $20 million for capital upgrades, not including the offsite pool venue. Each level of government — municipal, provincial and federal — must contribute $3 million. Red Deer would spend a minimum of $3 million.
The operational budget would be about $30 million with the provincial and federal governments providing $8.12 million each. Funding from Red Deer would include ticket sales and corporate sponsorship.
crhyno@www.reddeeradvocate.com