CANADA - The Toronto city and federal government are at odds over where to stage the G20 Summit, due to come to the city in June. While the federal government has plans to host the global economic summit in the city’s downtown Metro Toronto Convention Centre, its mayor has said he prefers Exhibition Place, on the outskirts of the city.
Toronto councillor Adam Vaughan has sent a letter to his constituents saying the city has tried to convince the government to move the event to Exhibition Place and warns residents that, otherwise, it will create ‘no-go zones’ with wide-spread protests if the federal government insists on staging it near Front Street.
Officially, the hosting venue for the G20, which will see world’s 20 largest economies’ heads of state meet, has yet to be announced.
“The security operation for this is just about the size of what’s happening in Vancouver right now, except instead of 10 years to plan we get 10 months,” Mayor David Miller told the Canadian press. He was keen to stress the right city had been chosen, “but the reality is this is a very complex place where they’ve decided to stage this event”.
A spokesperson for the Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper refused to comment on the debate until the venue is made public, adding that it would be “shortly”.
The government had announced back in December that Toronto would host the summit, 26-27 June 2010.
