Canada Summer Games start to feel real

After six years of talking, planning, speculating, negotiating, applying, budgeting, rebudgeting, training, building — this thing is starting to feel real.

At one time little more than a dream on paper with a one-in-four chance of becoming reality, the 2022 Canada Summer Games opens less than 100 days from now on Aug. 6, right here in Niagara.

What a way to shine for the whole country to see. And what a time to shine, after more than two years of what all of us have been through and continue to endure.

It feels like this is what we all need. Let the Games begin. Canada Games Park and the Walker Sports and Abilities Centre are officially open. They’re spectacular.

We’ve had the gala concert to kick off the 100-day countdown to opening day, headlined by Niagara Falls’ own Tim Hicks with supporting acts Poesy and Loverboy.

This week, we saw the unveiling of the design for the gold, silver and bronze medals athletes will be awarded, beautifully created by St. Catharines artist Shaun O’melia.

“You see the devotion and effort athletes put into their journey. I hope this will be a timeless piece for them, as it was for me,” O’melia said this week.

And soon, more than 5,000 athletes and coaches, plus other crew members and hopefully thousands of fans will join in the excitement of world-class athletics that will happen here from Aug. 6 to 21. But it hasn’t been an easy road to travel to get this far.

Remember, it started back in 2016 when Niagara and three other Ontario regions — Ottawa, Sudbury and Kitchener-waterloo — all applied to win the right to host these Games.

The next year, we won.

In the summer of 2019, there was backroom jockeying between the provincial and federal governments that, had things gone the wrong way, might have jeopardized at least some of the funding Niagara was counting on. And remember, it was actually the 2021 Canada Summer Games that Niagara had expected to host. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event has been delayed a year.

Along the way, the price tag went up from the $99 million projected capital cost in 2019 to what now looks like $107 million.

It’s all being paid for through a grab bag of sources — local, regional, provincial and federal governments have all committed millions of dollars to this project. Brock University, too, chipped in with money as well as providing the land where Canada Games Park was built.

The amenities — either new or renovated facilities for events like baseball and softball, tennis, track, cycling, basketball, rowing — will be with us for years.

Events will be held around Niagara as well, from Brock to Niagara Falls, Welland, Port Colborne, Niagara-onthe-lake, St. Catharines and Grimsby.

All this couldn’t come a minute too soon for Niagara’s tourism industry, which has been devastated by the past two years. Wineries, hotels, restaurants, attractions, casinos, live theatre — they all face years of recovery to make up for their losses in 2020 and 2021.

Now it’s up to us, the fans, to do our part. If you haven’t bought tickets to any of the events yet, go get them. Be a supporter. If you’ve got the time, be a volunteer helper. Something like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Get the full experience.

Niagara has earned it (and will be paying for it long after the games wrap up). For 15 days in August, though, we can bask in the glow of it all.

Don’t pass up the opportunity to be a part of history.

All this couldn’t come a minute too soon for Niagara’s tourism industry, which has been devastated by the past two years