Who’s going to build Pan Am facilities?

Now that the Pan Am stadium location has been settled, Infrastructure Ontario is looking for companies to build facilities for the Toronto 2015 games.

The government agency is requesting interested companies provide their qualifications to design, finance and build, York University stadium for the athletes venue; the velodrome for track and cycling in Hamilton; and the rebuilding of Ivor Wynne Stadium. City councillors agreed to redeveloping Ivor Wynne just hours before a February 1st deadline, and submitted it to Toronto 2015 as one of four host venues for soccer during the Pan Am games. But as far as we knew Toronto 2015 had yet to approve the venue.

So the question is why is Infrastructure Ontario already seeking qualifications from companies before Toronto 2015’s sign off? Hamilton mayor Bob Bratina says he hasn’t heard anything from the former Hostco about Ivor Wynne, but he’s expecting to hear something by mid-February. “We have no formal notification that anything has been advanced.”

“Although it may be within the next week, we could hear back, it could be just that they are working ahead to get companies to express interest.”

This Friday, leaders from 17 municipalities across the Golden Horseshoe will be in Hamilton attending the Toronto 2015 municipal forum. It’s just one in a series of on-going meetings engaging local communities to play a formal role in coordinating, planning and organizing the games.