CALGARY (CP) - The federal government spent $37,450 on a study estimating the economic benefits of next month's G-8 summit, but officials released few specifics on where the money is likely to be spent. The study, which focuses only on the spending of media, delegates and G-8 summit office employees, estimates an economic impact of $243 million to the Calgary area.
The study does not include the economic spinoffs of security costs as well as money spent by the thousands of anticipated protesters of the meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized countries on June 26 and 27.
"We have not included other visitors to Calgary for the G-8 summit in this study," states the PricewaterhouseCoopers study released Thursday.
"While they may have an impact, it is too speculative to estimate their numbers and their activities to in turn estimate their economic impact."
Mike O'Shaughnessy, media co-ordinator of the G-8 summit office, said it's "standard practice" that the federal government commissions such studies for all international meetings held in Canada.
"These are overall estimates and they don't represent costs so much as projected expenditures based on our experience with hosting other summits," he said.
A final report of actual costs is expected to be released after the 30-hour meeting in Kananaskis, Alta., wraps up.
The pre-event assessment study looked at spending on accommodation, food and beverage, transportation, recreation, entertainment and retail, but there was no breakdown of how much was spent where.
The report included spending by about 100 staff working for the summit management office who were relocated to Calgary from Ottawa for three months. Most staff is staying in downtown Calgary apartments and hotels, O'Shaughnessy said.
The G-8 summit office supplied PricewaterhouseCoopers with the amount of media and delegates expected to attend the summit, but those numbers are not included in the pre-event assessment report. Most media will be working at a downtown Calgary media centre and staying in nearby hotels.
The report's authors used a method developed by the Conference Board of Canada, which is widely-used as a tourism economic assessment model throughout the country.
The concept of economic impact is based on every dollar that is spent recirculating within the economy, multiplying the effects of the initial expenditure.
The $243-million economic impact is estimated for the 130-kilometre area from Calgary to Banff. The estimated economic impact for Calgary is about $193 million.
Calgary Mayor David Bronconnier said it's a "very significant" amount to the city.
"It really equates something very similar to what occurred in Calgary in 1988, and of course that was the Winter Olympic games," he said.
According to Tourism Calgary, some $137 million was spent by visitors to the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games, while the 2001 Calgary Stampede pulled in about $137 million.
The G-8 summit is an annual forum that brings together leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States to discuss and make policies on major global issues.
The host country, Canada, is to pay the total bill for each visiting country's leader plus one delegate. Additional delegates have to pay their own costs.
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