Sue Hylland said the Prince George bid was seen as the one to beat in the 2015 Canada Winter Games competition, and Kamloops and Kelowna could not overcome in the end.
"Prince George set the bar," said Hylland, the Canada Games Council president and CEO. "You could see it in the structure of their bid committee. It allowed for a number of people to be engaged. It wasn't just one person delivering the entire proposal, there was a team approach, a team effort, and that came across clearly."
Hylland was in Prince George this past week, along with three other council members, to begin the process of Games readiness. It is still four and a half years away, 52 months, but there is a systematic schedule to keep for ensuring the multi-sport/cultural extravaganza happens at the level the nation expects. There is also built-in room for a host community to put a personal stamp on the proceedings and perhaps set new standards for future Canada Winter Games.
"(Prince George's) bid is no different than any other: there are strengths and there are challenges," Hylland said. "Nothing in my mind is a major concern, totally manageable, they are details we need to work through."
For example, she said, the idea of having downtown hotels house the athletes in a compact village-style cluster is a good one. Halifax is doing the same thing at their CWGs happening this February. There just has to be a written plan as to how those athletes will be shuttled to their common events, that there are safety measures in place since many athletes are minors, etc.
She isn't worried about Prince George's ability to fill those matters of fact, since they did so when called upon during the interview process when the three communities were bidding.
"(Prince George bid volunteers) knew the answer to the questions," said Hylland.
The strong team approach showed not only confidence, but also a plan already formed, she explained, which impressed the bid evaluation team. Major impact was made by the strong inclusion of our local First Nation, and the surrounding communities of the north. The athletes' village concept was well received, the setup of the broadcast centre at UNBC was a mark in Prince George's favour, and the attention to detail on evaluation day also left a big impression but that was helped greatly by all the people of the city who spontaneously showed up to cheer the team on as they toured the area.
"We were overwhelmed by the community engagement," Hylland said. "You work well together as a team, that much is apparent."
The team approach was at the forefront of the language our city's bid team was using during the courting process, said Hylland, and that was noticed by the evaluation committee, it was a factor. It resonated when Prince George's group talked even in the bidding period about the Canada Winter Games being a spark plug for all of northern B.C.; when they acknowledged that it was not just about one city, but the province as a whole; when they made it clear that these were the nation's Games and any host community had to behave as a national ambassador.
While here, the CWG contingent began the instructional phase of helping local organizers set up the host society, hiring a CEO, then leading to picking a few hundred key volunteers to lead the different operational teams needed to pull the games off, hiring a staff, keeping all capital and organization aspects on schedule and on budget, and finally collecting an army of about 5,000 volunteers to pull of the actual event in February of 2015.
Always, the local CWG team will have access to a central informational mentor, and a celebrity at that, if they have any questions or concerns. The national body has retained Fox TV soccer analyst Bobby McMahon as the go-to guy for Prince George. McMahon, more than a footballer and television personality, was also the chief operating officer for the 1999 Pan Am Games in Winnipeg.
