MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR OF SHERBROOKE

Sherbrooke is the first city in Quebec to host the Canada Summer Games. It will be a great pleasure to welcome the entire country to our fair city in August 2013!

This major event is the crowning achievement of all the efforts we have made and the experience we have acquired in organizing major competitions over the past 40 years. Welcoming sports delegations to Sherbrooke soil is old hat for us; we hosted the World Water Ski Championship in 1967, the Jeux du Québec finals in 1977 and 1995, the Baseball Junior Championship in 2002, and the World Youth Championships in Athletics in 2003… just to name a few!

All of these major sporting events came about thanks to our city’s phenomenal capacity to rally volunteers and develop significant partnerships. Each event seemed to elicit even greater enthusiasm – no doubt due to relationships that have been established over the years – creating true magic so that Sherbrooke and the region could truly shine.  

Sporting events have also become a major component of sports development in our region and an important economic driver for both the city and the Eastern Townships.

Although much remains to be done before the great Sherbrooke Canada Games adventure becomes reality, I am confident that in 2013, we will make this major Canadian sports competition a memorable event that will have a place in our city’s history.

Bernard Sévigny

Mayor of Sherbrooke

Over a year ago, Excellence Sportive Sherbrooke eagerly accepted the mandate proposed by our municipal council to set up top-quality candidature instruments for the City of Sherbrooke with the objective of obtaining the right to host the 2013 Canada Summer Games.

Be it with regard to the business plan, candidature documents or efforts to mobilize our community, our efforts have measured up to our reputation. Our committees are run masterfully, function efficiently and are very dynamic.

I encourage everyone in our community to lend their support to this grand and promising dream, an inestimable legacy, not only for us but for everyone involved in the Canada Games network.

Jean-François Rouleau

President of Excellence Sportive Sherbrooke

The event’s program consists of 19 sports, divided into 2 distinctive competition blocks, which will most likely be held on the two first weeks of August 2013. 

The city of Sherbrooke candidacy will be focused on presenting unforgettable games, rich in athletic and human experiences for all participants. These games will be held in optimal conditions in order to enable outstanding athletic performances, will emphasize the power of sports in the achievement of positive change and will be meticulously planned out and exploited in a responsible manner. They will be physically, socially and economically accessible, will promote and acknowledge its contributing partners and promise to arouse its population’s interest in participating in the event, as well as bring attention to our region’s rich athletic, social, cultural and economic legacy. Finally, these games will respect the environment and all basic sustainable development principles.

The 2013 Canada Games will give our community the opportunity to showcase the athletes by drawing on its numerous qualified human resources while making place for our youth in the organization process. This powerful athletic leverage will help accentuate Sherbrooke’s stronghold in high-performance sports development. We must also aim to make Sherbrooke’s population one of Canada’s most physically active.

Sherbrooke’s vision on this project will necessarily draw on the tight relations established since 1967 between the games and the 250 Sherbrooke athletes and accompanying staff who have participated over the years. Our community will bank on this experience in order to reproduce the previous editions’ best aspects while adding a good touch of originality to ensure that the 2013 games will offer an unforgettable experience.

An undeniable legacy and a bridge between generations! Hosting the 2013 Canada Games brings the opportunity to participate in a unique collective project. This event, while acting as a unifying element will represent a bridge between Sherbrooke’s past and future. The city has, in the past few decades, been witness to an exemplary athletic dynamic from which it has greatly benefited. However, it’s once modern sporting equipment is aging and needs enhancement.

Refurbishing our sports facilities becomes indispensable as athletic tourism grows in importance for Sherbrooke. Hosting the 2013 Canada Games will not only help update the city’s equipment but will also strengthen Sherbrooke’s athletic, touristic and economic competitive edge.

The games will also showcase our region’s landscape and architectural heritage while revealing our local artists’ talents and the vitality of our cultural activity.

Finally, this unifying event promises to rally all generations in order to benefit from the experience of some, from the modern expertise of others and from the new ideas of up and coming thinkers of tomorrow. It will give our community the opportunity to stand out by the quality and solidity of the collaboration between our municipal organization and our learning institutions.

- The 2013 Canada Games will draw, to Sherbrooke and surroundings, more than 3 500 athletes, 860 trainers, 170 mission and 350 medical staff, approximately 700 reporters and broadcasting personnel, more than 400 dignitaries and close to 200 representatives and observers from various national athletic federations.

- Hosting the games will bring on provincial and federal government grants of up to 15.3 million dollars for operations and 6 million dollars in facilities.

- The Games will arouse interest from numerous families and friends who will readily make the trip to Sherbrooke to live the experience and encourage their athletes. The number of such visitors is estimated at thousands. The positive economic impact derived from the most recent games, held in Regina in 2005, was estimated at 91.9 million dollars, of which 77.1 million was attributed to the host city alone. Operation costs, investment in facilities and visitor spending came out to 54 million dollars and 18 million dollars were paid out in salaries to Regina workers with an additional 3.7 million dollars going out to Saskatchewan workers outside of Regina.

- The chosen host city will thereafter become a choice destination for all national athletic federations to present their upcoming individual championships. A number of federations, as does Basketball Canada for example, systematically decide to hold their championship in the future Canada Games facilities.  Also, enhanced facilities and increased organizational expertise will assure the city attracts provincial and national events for years to come.

Sherbrooke has, in many occasions, hosted international sporting events as well as being a logical choice by Canadian athletic federations as site to hold provincial and national competitions. You can consult this link to a pdf file which lists these athletic events. Our city’s athletic comities and volunteers have also organized two Québec Games finals (1995 and 1997) as well as the Québec Special Olympics and the first Canadian Transplant games. Our reputation is still relevant today as Sherbrooke will be host to the 2009 World Junior short track speed skating championships as well as national judo, sprint canoe kayak and Royal Legion athletics championships.

The Sherbrooke region, which counts two universities, regularly hosts scholastic sporting competitions in various disciplines. Furthermore, members of these two academic communities always stand out by their excellence as participants, volunteers and organizers of such events. This certainly explains why the Université de Sherbrooke and Bishop’s University are both focal points of Sherbrooke’s candidacy for host of the 2013 Canada Games, as both schools grace the organizing committee with their respective experience and expertise in organizing and hosting large-scale sporting events.

Furthermore, the city of Sherbrooke has collaborated in the creation of an athletic excellence center (Excellence Sportive Sherbrooke), dedicated to developing young athletes, offering advanced training to elite athletes, setting up various national and international sporting events and to training qualified consultants to athletes ranging from elite to the non-competitive.

The City of Sherbrooke will welcome talented young athletes from throughout Canada with open arms at the opening ceremonies, which we plan to hold in the Université de Sherbrooke’s magnificent outdoor stadium. Located just below Mont Bellevue, with a panoramic view of Sherbrooke and many of its tourist attractions, this stadium was the stage for the World Junior Athletic Championships. It has everything required to host a similar event, with its 10 000 seats, extensive technical capacities and controls, sound and lighting systems, and nearby parking facilities.

The know-how of Sherbrooke and other Quebec artists has often been the creative force behind major artistic performances. Everyone is eager to once again demonstrate the originality they are capable of in the context of an inclusive, amazing, creative and powerful show, featuring dazzling colours and inspiring sounds. In the celebrations focusing on the athletes, Quebec will portray its culture and its traditions, while Sherbrooke will tell its history and share its aspirations and its openness to communities of all origins. The ceremonies will also carry the message of the Canada Games loudly and strongly and reflect all of the vitality and enthusiasm of the Canadian sports movement.

Imagine! After 18 days of sports performances and various cultural activities, the Canada Games community will be invited to Parc Jacques-Cartier for the closing ceremonies. An oasis of green in an urban environment, this park and its lake, Lac des Nations, played an active role in the City’s settlement. This location is also the site of sports accomplishments in Sherbrooke (site of the world waterskiing championships) and summer festivities (a gathering place for the traditional Fête du Lac festival and a national fireworks competition).

The ceremony’s goal will be to bring everyone together, to socialize and celebrate the successes and efforts devoted to the event as a whole, but, most of all, the accomplishments of the athletes and the contributions of the volunteers. All in all, the closing ceremonies will focus on the pleasure of being together one last time. Shows, music and fireworks will blend to create a ceremony recorded in the Canada Games history book as one that both fascinated and moved spectators. This will be the moment when representatives of the next host city will be presented with the symbols of this competition, the flag and the flame of the games, and the event’s organizers will be able to say “Mission accomplished!”

Setting up close to twenty elite national competitions at once will call upon the use of mostly all of the region’s facilities, as well as those in the Magog and Coaticook municipalities. The main competition, training and lodging sites will be set up at some Sherbrooke City facilities, the Université de Sherbrooke, Bishop’s University, Sherbrooke College, the Triolet, du Pare and Alexander Galt high schools and at Bishop’s College School.