Updated: Fri Nov. 06 2009 8:17:19 PM

ctvtoronto.ca

Politicians from all three levels of government promised commitment and passion if the Pan American Sports Organization granted Toronto the 2015 Pan Am Games -- now they will have to deliver.

On Friday, Toronto won the right to host the games on the first ballot at a PASO meeting in Guadalajara. The ballot was a secret one.

Mayor David Miller described the process this way in postings to Twitter, a social messaging service:

• They have given the envelope
• 50 votes cast. Only one ballot needed. Announcement is: toronto

Canada's largest city had been competing against Lima, Peru and Bogota, Colombia.

"Thank you for the confidence you have shown in Toronto," Miller said after the vote.

"And now it's on to 2015 and the best Pan Am Games ever!" said a beaming Premier Dalton McGuinty, and paid particular tribute to David Peterson, a former Liberal premier and the chair of the bid committee.

"In the end, we proved Toronto could host an event of this magnitude ... with excellence," Miller told CTV News Channel by telephone afterwards.

Toronto sold itself based on its multiculturalism, safety, facilities and support from all levels of government. "I think I can tell you the single biggest drawing feature for Toronto is our diversity," McGuinty told CTV Toronto from Guadalajara..

It was Toronto's third time vying for the prestigious hosting position. The last time southern Ontario hosted a major international sporting event was in 1930 when Hamilton secured the Commonwealth Games.

"This will be the single largest sporting event in the history of the province," McGuinty said.  "We will  welcome 42 countries, over 10,000 athletes -- and along the way, we'll create 15,000 construction jobs."

Southern Ontario will finally get some much-needed sports infrastructure, such as a velodrome and an Olympic-sized swimming pool, plus a new stadium in Hamilton, he said.

The Pan Am Games happen every four years in the year before the summer Olympic Games. The multi-sport event sees athletes from all over the Americas competing in much of the games featured in the summer Olympics.

Guadalajara will host the next Pan Am Games in 2011.

No Games Toronto

The Pan Am Games will cost $2.4 billion: $1.4 billion for the event and another $1 billion for an athlete's village. The plan is to convert it to a mixed-income neighbourhood after the games.

Ottawa and Queen's Park are putting up $500 million each towards the cost of the games, while municipalities and private investors will pay the remaining $428.5 million.

The expenditures come at a time when the province is staring at a deficit of almost $25 billion, while Toronto has serious budget woes of its own.

"We're talking about six years out. I'm very confident that we will continue to find ourselves in a position where the games will be affordable to us," McGuinty said.

The bid did not have the support of everyone in the city. A contingent of people who call their group No Games Toronto have protested it all along.

The group had been planning to show up at an event on Queen's Quay Friday night where people were expected to gather to hear the announcement live, according to Joeita Gupta, spokesperson for No Games.

Murphy Browne, a Toronto resident who helped organize a protest against the games back in October, said the city should spend the $2.4 billion it will cost them to host the event on more pressing matters.

She told ctvtoronto.ca that a large demonstration at Queen's Park on Thursday by students and anti-poverty groups highlighted Toronto's financial shortcomings.

"The government has no money to take care of people who are in need in this community. It's cold and people are living on the street -- that's more important than a one-week mega sporting event," she said.

She also pointed to a recent recommendation by the city's public transit system to raise fares and the Toronto District School Board's fight to keep their pools open as other reasons why the games are a waste of money.

"(The public) school board doesn't have money to keep their pools open but the city wants to build an Olympic-sized pool," she said. "How can the city rationalize closing community pools?"

With a report from CTV Toronto's Zuraidah Alman

Comments are now closed for this story

Red X
1 in 3 chance on a 3rd try?! The question is how involved will the other GTA cities will be in relation to the City of Toronto?

The economic activity projecting out to 2015 is inconclusive; but would look to have like previous adventures - cost over runs for the taxpayer through various gov'ts...

RVH
What a waste of tax payers money! Nobody cares about the Pan Am games. Probably 3/4 of people don't even know what countries are involved and thats based on the fact that NOBODY CARES about these games. I hope Toronto does not get it. Go Colombia and Peru. Toronto will sink deeper in dept for years to come. Way to go Toronto, reach for the stars to get the Olymics and fail and scratch at the bottom of the barrel to host the Pan Am games which no one cares about.

david sawkiw[saskatchewan farmer]
2015 The big question here is will the liberals have their rightful place in Ottawa by then?Will the mittens for the pan-am games be blue in color with a big "C" [for Canada] imprinted upon them?Taxes be damned, Pan -am games are expensive but they are worth it,, just like the olympics.................

Scot
I hope we do not get the Pan Am Games, I agree it is waste of tax payer's money.

MJ
This after I just heard CTV report that Toronto is so far in debt. TTC fairs rising, taxes again rising, garbage costs, land transfer taxes and more of them and Miller wants to bury them with the Games? Where will the money come from for all that is needed? Buildings etc???

Just another MILLER FOLLIE!!!

Good luck Toronto I hope you get a better, smarter mayor next time because this one is burying you in debt.

JR of Toronto
Toronto has a very good chance of getting the Pan Am Games 2015. Winning the Pan Am will also boost Toronto's bid for the 2020 summer olympics, which is likely to be awarded to a north American next time around (the last time north America hosted the games was in 1996).

TORONTO 2O2O - The five O's representing the five rings of the olympic flag. Neat eh!

Gord
I hope Commissar Miller and his comrades took a lot of sun blocker with them on this junket. What a waste of time. Moreover, the big smoke can't afford the infrastructure necessaryto host the games. Get real! Get back here and develop programs that help stem the tide of businesses leaving the big smoke for Peel, Durham and Vaughn regions. Every day we hear of businesses not renewing their premises leases and moving to these outlying business friendly regions. Take a drive almost anywhere in these outlying regions ane see the growth of these industrial malls springin up everywhere.

David
Winnipeg has hosted the Pan Am games twice, so there's no reason Toronto shouldn't be able to manage it.

Jim
Organized crime must be rubbing their hands with glee !
Infrastructure price jacking up !

reidjr
I can see the liberals in power but not with iggy.I aslo fear they will do something to make us all look really small time.

Dave, Ottawa
How can Toronto host the games? Pistol and rifle shooting are Pan-Am Games events. Shooting ranges are no longer allowed on city property. Obviously, the Mayor believes that the shooting sports are a stepping stone to gang membership, and must be abolished. Why would he want to encourage such activities by bringing the games here?

david
JR of Toronto the five o's in Toronto 2020 will represent losing the Pan Am games 3 times and the Olympics twice. 5 time loser!

peter duffy
Games? No! Fix the roads. Extend the subway. More cement. No more ashphalt patches. More seniors housing. More affordable housing. More public health

Whoopidooo
Step 1: Insert right index finger on inside of left cheek

Step 2: Press on inside of cheek while pushing finger out of mouth in order to make "popping" sound

Step 3: Point index finger upwards and rotate in clockwise, circular motion.

roy
Hey Saskatchewan Farmer its not the Liberals rightful place in Ottawa no more than it is the Conservatives which I think do a better job all the Liberals do is fill their own pockets,I'll take Harper any day over those goons

How's the farm?
Hey David Sawkiw,

Does your farm ever actually produce anything? You seem to be on here all day everyday every season. Perhpaps the Harperites are paying for you with a big novelty cheque not to farm but to post here instead? Or maybe you're a Sask. Data farmer?

TO GRRL
Once again here go the leadership spending money we don't have for something we do not need. Pools and arenas for the citizens are in a state of disrepair and the city is budget is in the hole. Let's add more debt to the overburdened tax payers. Some one call Gail Vaz-Oxlade they could use her help!

Hunter
I guess I am in the minority on here that thinks any kind of games is good for the area.

The money that is spent, will get people involved in sports which is money well spent. It encourages more active, healthy life styles, which would ease the burden on our health care system. It can teach youth about respect, and promote self confidence, which could, and I stress could, keep kids off the streets, and maybe out of gangs, and give them a better sense of belonging, and maybe the strength to say no to the wrong choices. Just adding my 2 cents.

betteb
Let this PLEASE be Toronto's time!

As a resident of the lower-east downtown side of the city, we need the Pan-Am Games. For too long this area has languished in barren fields - if we get the games, we'll have 6,000 urgently needed new housing units in the West Don Lands (many of them affordable rental units) for over 11,000 people. We'll get an 18-acre park in an area that almost totally lacks great parks. Anyone who can't understand how important this is, is being short-sighted - both philosophically and financially.

If we don't get the games, the re-building of the West Don Lands will never get finished - and all the money that's gone into it so far will have been wasted. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get these games! We need them and we can't afford NOT to get them.

Lynn in Hamilton
To all the sour pusses out there.... do you have ANY idea how many jobs this will create???? Are you crazy??? Wow, unbelievable. Ask yourself this question.... should our taxes go to create jobs or to support those out of a job?

Jt
JR of Toronto
I would not expect toronto to host 2 major events ina short time like 5 years.The pan am games could be a test to say how the olympics could do in toronto.

JR of Toronto
david, come on be a little optimistic!

Jex Opolis
What the small-minded haters commenting here fail to realize is that the Games will give Toronto a much-needed kick in the butt to redevelop the waterfront. The legacy of such games are always great training facilities, etc. In Calgary, the Olympics brought the C-train, which is now used by 300,000 people every day.

Pip
Congratulations Toronto!

Rotten Ronny
This is real nice, with the crappy economy, people laid off everywhere, H1N1 vacinne screwups, potential provincial government employees lay offs and ray days again-why dont we celebrate this collosal waste of tax payers money, our lovely government in action, anybody care that hospitals & schools are closing?

Alan
Yeahhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Finally, Toronto has won something in sports!
Now it's up to all of us, including all levels of government, to get behind the Games and make them the best yet.
Think positively, and remember the assets left after the Games will be our legacy for years to come.
Well done folks.

JR of Toronto
WELL DONE TORONTO! LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

WU LI
Small minded, Nay sayers...really? Do you actually think Toronto will come out ahead? Like Skydome? Garanteed this'll be a fiasco that'll cost taxpayers way more than the city makes!

No wait...Miller will be gone by then, right?

maybe we have a chance after all.

Mike M
This is great news for Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe!

Barry
Are these people fiscal-intelligently challenged? Who is going to pay for these games? This extremely high taxed city is near bankruptcy, the province is ran by an insane Marxist who already has created a $25 billion deficit, and the nation is ran by a big spending liberal who has created a $60 billion dollar deficit. So why are these people attempting to develop another deficit creating vehicle to steal even more of our children's future standard of living?

MJ
I'll congratulate Toronto on winning something BUT don't whine at the rest of us when your taxes etc go up to pay for it.

City deep in debt, Province deep in debt, Country deep in debt and they figure how to spend a lot of money on this!!!

Yes, it will leave money behind in Toronto BUT it will never reach the price tag to promote and host these games.

Stephen B
Waste of the taxpayers money!!! End the spending now. If it is not spent on health care and education do not spend my money!!!!!

MAL of TO
So when all is said and done, how much of these new toys will go to 'real working people'.... you know the ones that actually live in Toronto, work in Toronto and pay taxes in Toronto and will be the ones paying for these games. Because I'm not a big fan of selling half of it off to the rich and giving the other half to the poor to ghetto-ize like everything else this city has done with social services for 40 years.

Phil in London
Good for Toronto!

Waste of money? Probably but it gives cause to pride in our cities and nation. It's not something I'll partake in but I am happy for those who want the chance to do so.

Mike
Congratulations fellow Torontonians, we're officially bankrupt!