At the 625-day mark, the 2015 Canada Winter Games added another major community sponsor.
Finning Canada and its subsidiary The Cat Rental Store are being tasked with powering the Prince George games and supplying heavy equipment for outdoor capital projects.
"Our power systems division has got enough power capacity to run entire mine sites and we think we'll be more than capable of helping get some local venues there in a big way," said Don Gowan, Finning Canada regional general manager.
Each partnership the 2015 Games cultivates is unique for the situation required for the venues or athlete experience, said host society chair Anthony Everett.
"In the case of Finning and the Cat Rental Store, we'll be creating trail expansions, working on the outdoor ice oval and moulding a half-pipe that will give local, regional and visiting athletes an exceptional training and competition space before, during and after the 2015 Games," he said.
Projects in advance of the games the new sponsors will have a hand in include a half-pipe, cross course and slope-style areas, aerial course and mogul site at Tabor Mountain Ski Resort; alpine course development at Purden Ski Village; cross-country stadium widening and trail development at Otway Nordic Centre; and track development and berm construction at the Prince George Outdoor Ice Oval.
Now in its 80th year, Finning Canada has more than 5,000 employees in western Canada and the company is "very happy to be involved in our communities in Western Canada and the north as well," Gowan said.
The relationship between Finning and the 2015 Games has already started, with work last summer to build a snowboard cross course. A test event held over the winter was well received, said Tabor owner Fern Thibault.
"Being able to use state of the art equipment from Finning is going to make our lives so much easier and allows us to dream bigger and build bigger than we even could imagine," Thibault said.
