Huntsville to host G20

Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially announced this morning that Canada and South Korea will be co-hosting a G20 Summit in Muskoka, the focus of which will be the economy.

This is great news for the Muskoka and Huntsville area as more press and media attention will be drawn to beautiful Muskoka.

The summit will take place either immediately before or after the scheduled G8 Summit at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville and may be held at the same location.

“This is a great honour for Muskoka and for Canada,” said Parry Sound-Muskoka member of Parliament Tony Clement, who hosted a press conference with Huntsville mayor Claude Doughty following the prime minister’s announcement. “The eyes of the world will be on Muskoka and mark my words we will be ready for that.”

According to Clement, plans to host the G20 have been in the works for some time but a decision came to a head during the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, held late this week.

The South Korean government was scheduled to host a G20 Summit in April but has rescheduled it to the fall in order to co-host it with Canada.

Clement said details are still being worked out and would not speculate on additional security, or who will pick up the extra costs, which he said he are expected to be minimal.

“There may be some augmentations to the existing (G8) budget but I would argue they should be minor. After all, one of the advantages of holding both in Muskoka would be the cost advantages,” said Clement.

The federal government has invested some $30 million in infrastructure in Huntsville to host the G8 Summit from June 25-27.

Article source: Huntsville Forester

HUNTSVILLE, Ont. – Residents of the cottage country community of Huntsville, Ont., were hopeful Friday that a much bigger gathering of world leaders in their region would attract more tourists and leave them with better road and sewer systems.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Friday that Canada will host both the G8 and G20 summits next year. While the G8 will still take place in Huntsville in June, the Muskoka region north of Toronto has also been chosen for the larger gathering to be held around the same time.

Many local business owners were enthusiastic about the change, saying they hoped it would bring in more business as the event’s host, Deerhurst Resort, contracts out services.

“They haven’t sent out any of the contracts yet but as a flower shop we’re hoping to do all the flowers for the G8 and G20,” said Mandy Davis, head designer at Jane Marshall Flowers.

“It’s huge for us. Hopefully it will put us on the map a little bit more and we’ll get more of that kind of thing, more conferences to the big resorts.”

Kelly Haywood, executive director of the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce, called it a “great new development for the community.”

“We’ve always looked at this as an excellent opportunity to boost our local tourism emphasis … (and) when you look at the infrastructure that’s been added to the community it has quite a legacy in terms of opportunity for us to host other events.”

Scott Atchison, a Huntsville resident and former city councillor, said there were lots of rumours swirling around town about what exactly people should expect come June, but he said the impact on the community wouldn’t change much whether it’s a G8 or G20.

“The G8 delegations would be the biggest ones anyhow, especially with the American president – that’s a huge delegation and most of the security would be related to the needs of that delegation,” Atchison said.

Ultimately, he said, all that matters to the community is that lots of money – both from the federal government’s infrastructure stimulus package and the G8 itself – is being spent in Huntsville.

The economic benefits of each summit are expected to spillover to cities like Toronto, which had already set aside 10,000 hotel rooms for the G8.

“We were forecasting a spending level of about $20 million,” said Andrew Weir, a spokesman for Tourism Toronto.

“There’s no doubt about it, when you move from a G8 to a G20, there’s a lot more countries involved, a lot more participants, likely more media as well … and that spells greater economic impact for Toronto.”

In Huntsville, however, some residents like Paula Smith, a 30-year-old mother of four, worried about disruptions the summit would bring to her family.

“I just want to know what it’s going to do to the school year, because my child goes to school past where the media centre is,” Smith said.

“The other thing for me is, what’s going to happen with my husband’s job (because) they’re closing Highway 60 and he generally works out past there – so he could have a week off – and whether he’s going to be paid or not, who knows.”

The star-power of having many of the world’s leaders in her backyard is exciting, Smith conceded, but, she added, “the reality is we’re not going to likely see any of the people.”

Wallace Peters, 79, retired to Huntsville 24 years ago and is proud the town will be on display. But he’s not looking forward to having to deal with heavy security and blocked streets, and has talked to some shops on the main strip who are concerned their business may take a hit.

“I’d rather not have the hassle but it’s going to be good for Huntsville’s economy, it has been good for Huntsville’s economy.”

Canada’s G20 summit reflects the growing importance of emerging markets and will focus on mainly economic issues. The event will officially crown the group as the most powerful economic decision-making body in the world.

Anne White, a spokeswoman for Deerhurst, said she was aware of discussions around the expanded summit but had not yet heard where the G20 would take place.

- By Romina Maurino in Toronto

Tagged as: G20, G20 Summit, g8, Huntsville, Huntsville host G20, Huntsville ontario