Saint John hopes to be designated a cultural capital of Canada in 2010 as it celebrates its 225th anniversary.

The city will be applying to the federal Canadian Heritage program that recognizes municipalities for activities that promote arts and culture.

"Now is the time to make an application, and the fact that it coincides with the city's 225th anniversary on 2010 seemed to us to be serendipity, but added to the credibility of the application, so the timing was right," said Michael Wennberg, chair of the community arts board.

Five communities receive the Canadian Heritage designation annually. Fredericton and Caraquet were among the municipalities selected as cultural capitals for 2009.

The cultural affairs office in Saint John will be joining with the board to propose a year-long program operating on the theme of "Saint John: The Original City." The city will be asking for $750,000 in funding for the year's events.

Meanwhile city council agreed on Monday night to form a partnership with the private sector to market Saint John as a tourism destination.

Currently a number of organizations try to attract tourists to the city, and it creates a fragmented effort, said Pat Woods, deputy city manager.

"That fragmentation means that we risk missing opportunities. We can lose focus and when we lose focus, we also lose clout," Wood said.

A new integrated agency will bring together Tourism Saint John with the tourism industry and have a promotion budget of about $1 million annually, Wood said.