A great event is going to take place on June 26th and 27th in Toronto. As our Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced during his stay in South Korea, the G20 summit is going to be moved to Toronto instead of originally planned Huntsville area.
What implication will this fact have for Toronto and its citizens?
First of all, Toronto will be the top place of the world, due to the visit of 20 top politicians. The most prestigious of them surely is the US president, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Barack Obama. Not only the politicians, but also many officials and journalist from all around the world - US, EU member states, China or India- will be coming to Toronto. As said by Mayor David Miller, the even will positively influence the city's growing reputation worldwide.
Also, according to the president of the Greater Toronto Hotel Association, Terry Mundel, the summit will certainly have very positive economic implications for Toronto. For more than 30 international delegations coming, about 10,000 hotel rooms will be needed. As Mundel said, the expected revenues, for accommodation solely, make up to approximately $17 millions. If we add food, beverages and entertainment, we get a pretty nice sum of money. The pubs and restaurants in Toronto will certainly have a lot of customers during the event.
A noteworthy question definitely is that of security, too. Mark Pugash, the spokesman of Toronto police says that all the aspects anyone would expect to be a part of a global event are being worked on a have been worked on for some time. Mayor Miller is thus convinced everything will go extremely smoothly. Without a doubt, there will be cars, helicopters, policemen and closed roads everywhere, but the Mayor expects the citizens to be understanding about such issues. Be prepared for all the restrictions during the event. Simply going out and let's say, look at open houses in the city will be basically impossible during the summit.
As a matter of fact, the summit is not the only interesting event to take place in Toronto in late June. Toronto Jazz festival is starting during the last weekend of June too. Let's just hope the Toronto police won't mistake Jazz fans for globalization protesters.