BANFF – Organizers of the G7 leaders’ summit say they are expecting 500 to 700 journalists in Banff where the international media centre is located.
In a presentation to Banff council on Monday (May 26), organizers said they didn’t imagine everyday life for Banff residents would change too much as a result of the international media centre, though restaurants and bars will be busy with media outlets from around the world.
Ugo Therien, Global Affairs Canada director of general planning for the G7, said the international media centre at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity will be the only secure location in Banff that will require accreditation and security screening.
“All the other locations in town will be free for movement. There will be no police impact, no accreditation needed,” Therien said.
“It’s going to be a busy weekend for you, but it’s not going to be something that is extraordinarily busy because of the fact that we control the number of people that are accessing the international media centre.”
Therien said delegations from G7 countries are responsible for moving their own media teams around.
“I am assuming they will rent mini vans or mini shuttles in order to bring them back and forth to the international media centre. You will see more cameras in town, we’re expecting some of the reporters will go down and try to make a story out of the city,” he said.
“Apart from that, it is going to be a busy period for restaurants, busy period for bars, busy period in downtown of having these people trying to see the city.”
The G7 Summit of world leaders is June 15-17 in Kananaskis Country. A big chunk of Kananaskis Country will be shut down to public access because of the extraordinary security measures in place as part of a controlled access zone.
Council asked questions about the impact on Banff and the surrounding national park from all of the displaced visitors from Kananaskis Country when the controlled access zone is activated from June 10-18. No information was forthcoming from the G7 officials, though.
In terms of safety and security, Therien said he could not speak on behalf of the RCMP and Integrated Safety and Security Group (ISSG), but security and safety is “extremely important” and there are measures in place for protection of the town.
“There’s a massive amount of work being done through the ISSG group … multiple exercises have been done previously in order to prepare for all the possible scenarios,” he said.
Therien said teams are directly involved in assessing wildfire threats and possible wildfire management.
“There’s also emergency measure committees that have been put in place in order to ensure we provide a safe environment if the situations are happening,” he said.
A designated demonstration zone will be located at the Fenlands recreation centre following pushback from municipal and business leaders about the previous planned location at Central Park.
Council was curious to find out how many protesters are expected at the designated demonstration zone in Banff, which will be broadcast to the world leaders in K-Country.
“It’s a difficult question that I can’t answer,” said Therien. “I’ll let the ISSG answer because they do the intel that I am not privileged to.”
Council also asked questions on a tactical plan to deal with the protest zone if protesters become unruly and unmanageable or leave the designated area.
While he couldn’t answer questions on what a tactical plan would look like, Therien said there has been a lot of discussion between the local RCMP and ISSG and pre-education with some organized protest groups.
“A lot of education and partnership is being done with them ahead of the summit to make sure we organize that in a controlled environment,” he said.
Katherine Severson, director of emergency management for the Town of Banff who has been involved in some G7 discussions and planning, said law enforcement is responsible for the development and execution of tactical plans.
“I can assure you that the Town and other emergency services, including the Banff Fire Department, we do have contingencies for how we would integrate at more of that coordination level and then incident command level if required,” she said.
Therien said only a small core group of the 500 to 700 media at the international media centre will be bused to and from Banff to the summit location in K-Country, which is about 80 km away.
He said the vast majority of journalists will be working on location at the Banff Centre.
“A lot of them have accommodation at the Banff Centre, but many hotels have been booked by international delegations already in order to be able to support extra capacity in terms of reporting,” he said.
“We’ve provided a certain limit of hotel rooms for each country so, therefore, some of them needed to book an alternative location in town.”
Therien said the G7 will be taking over four buildings at the Banff Centre for the international media centre.
“We started to bring our operation this week, but mainly our operation will be starting June 2. That’s where we’re taking lots of the footprint of the Banff Centre and we can expect receiving international media delegations starting June 13,” he said.
“That’s where you’re going to see more international reporters in town.”
In terms of investment, Therien said a new cell tower has been installed in downtown Banff and improvements have been made to existing cell towers, while a new cellular system has been installed for the Banff Centre.
“With these upgrades, we don’t foresee any disruption to the cellular quality during the summit,” he said.
“It’s a question we got often … but based on information I got from the people who are installing these, this should be guaranteeing a level of service to your citizens during the summit that will be the same.”
Darren Enns, director of planning and environment for the Town of Banff, said in the lead-up to the G7, the planning department has been approached by several land agents trying to secure land and permissions for cell towers.
“The one that we did approve is on the rooftop of the Pursuit building on Gopher Street, which is a permanent piece of infrastructure and permitted under a development permit,” he said, noting there will also be some temporary cellular infrastructure in town for the G7.
“There may also be upgrades to existing towers. We have two freestanding towers in the Town of Banff – one is located at the north side of the railway lands adjacent to where the utilities are and the second is in the industrial compound.”
According to Therien, the location of the international media centre in Banff provides a good opportunity to showcase all Banff has to offer.
“We’re going to have the eyes of the world here at the Banff Centre broadcasting their evening show on a daily basis from here, from CBC, CBS and BBC’s of the world,” he said.
“It’s going to be a fantastic and unique opportunity for your region and for your town to showcase the best of what you have.”
During the 2002 G8 Summit in Kananaskis Country, the international media centre was in Calgary.
This time, Therien said, organizers wanted to create an experience for the media that mimics the “look and feel” of where the world leaders will be meeting.
“We wanted to create that Rockies feel,” he said.
