Traffic hell during Pan Am Games par for the course: CEO

Torontosun.com
June 1, 2015
By Kevin Connor

Traffic nightmares will be a part of hosting an event as amazing as the Pan Am Games, the head of the organization says.

“Traffic (jams) are not something we save only for special occasions. It happens. There is no avoiding this ... we are asking for patience,” TO2015 CEO Saad Rafi told the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Monday.

“This won’t be routine. It won’t be hum-drum. We have nine months of winter for that. This will be a summer you will never forget.”

Rafi said a little congestion is a small price to pay to highlight the city with so many thousands of visitors.

He added the games will show what a great place Toronto is to visit and do business in.

“When was the last time we had an event that turned so many international eyes on us?” Rafi said.

Thanks to the Pan Am Games there will be infrastructure benefits for the city such as transit expansions and waterfront development where the athlete village will be - which will be turned into housing, he noted.

“After the athletes are gone we will have children playing, students going to school and seniors living independently,” Rafi said.

Thousands of local people have been hired to build tents, seating and lay power cables for the event. “It may look like ants building a colony, look like chaos, but everyone knows their role,” he said.

Legacy venues like the world-class aquatic centre will help children become future top athletes, he added.

Former Olympic swimmer Julia Wilkinson, who works with the games organizing committee, said she never thought she would see such facilities in Canada because she trained in a modest pool in rural Ontario.

“Athletes need support and a place to train and now we have that. It will inspire the next generation and the infrastructure will foster their dreams,” she said.