Toronto to face disruptions during G20 summit
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 | 5:30 PM ET
CBC News
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Toronto will host the next G20 summit in late June, a conference that is expected to draw thousands of international visitors but will also disrupt some of the city's major summer events.
The decision hasn't been made official yet, but the biennial meeting is likely to take place in the heart of the city, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, the weekend of June 26-27.
Toronto Mayor David Miller wants to move the summit away from the downtown core to the Exhibition grounds by Lake Ontario. He said holding the G20 meeting at the Metro Convention Centre would cause a number of security and traffic issues, especially if the event attracts a number of protestors.
"Of course it can be done downtown, but the logistics are daunting," Miller said. "There's probably 10,000 people living not too far from the convention centre."
The weekend of June 26-27 was slated to be a busy one even before the G20 meeting. The Toronto Blue Jays are scheduled to play the Philadelphia Phillies at the nearby Rogers Centre on Saturday and Sunday.
Organizers of the city's annual Gay Pride week have postponed the parade, which normally draws millions of visitors from around the world, by one week in anticipation of the G20 summit.
Normally, the parade is held on the last weekend in June, after a week of festivities. The parade is meant to commemorate New York City's Stonewall Riots of June 28, 1969.
The parade will now be held on July 4, but the weeklong event will kick off the day before the G20 begins.
The G20 meeting has already driven stakes into the hearts of Toronto's vampire romance fans. TwiCon, a conference celebrating vampire pop culture like the Twilight and True Blood series, was booked into the Metro Convention Centre that weekend but organizers were told last week they needed to relocate. Local Edward Cullen fans will now have to trek to Ottawa for the conference.
Despite the possible disruptions and logistical challenges, the federal government, who has the final say on the G20 meeting's location, appears keen to hold the summit somewhere in Toronto's financial district.
"The whole point is to showcase Canada as an attractive place to do business and the way we regulate our banking sector," said Andrew MacDougall, a spokesman for the prime minister.
"We have a good story and we want it told well," he said, without confirming the location.
With files from The Canadian PressShare Tools
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