World aquatics championships. Mayor heads retooled organizing body that hopes to drum up $10 million

Linda Guylai

First he saved the World Aquatics Championships for Montreal, and yesterday Mayor Gerald Tremblay took the reins of the organizing committee.

"We're like in an emergency situation," Tremblay said as he announced the retooled Montreal 2005 organizing committee at a news conference at city hall.

"We can't ask questions and questions. We must act."

To that end, Tremblay named himself co-chairperson of the organizing committee of the now-resuscitated aquatics event.

Normand Legault, president of Grand Prix F1 du Canada Inc., is the other co-chairperson.

The world aquatics governing body, the Federation internationale de natation, stripped Montreal of the event in January when the original organizing committee mustered only $175,000 in corporate sponsorships in the three years it was in charge.

FINA voted Feb. 10 to return the event to Montreal after Tremblay offered a guarantee the city would cover any deficit. The city followed up with intensive wooing of FINA members.

The event is slated for July 17-31 at Ile Ste. Helene.

Tremblay said Legault, who also will serve as treasurer, will provide credibility and negotiating expertise as the committee endeavours to drum up the estimated $10 million needed for the event to break even.

Legault and Tremblay co-operated on a rescue mission more than a year ago, when they and a contingent of businesspeople and provincial and federal government officials persuaded Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone to reinstate the Grand Prix race in Canada.

"It's a very important coup," Tremblay said of getting Legault, whom he called a friend, to agree to join the aquatics organizing committee.

Legault, who joined the mayor at the news conference, will look after negotiating with suppliers.

Another coup, Tremblay said, was getting Rene Guimond, former president of the TQS Inc. television network and a former director of marketing for the Montreal Expos, to climb aboard as vice-chairperson and general manager of the committee.

The original cast of organizers submitted their resignations on Friday, Tremblay said.

"We want the mayor to have all the necessary latitude to accomplish the different tasks required to make these championships a success, especially establishing a board of directors of his choice," read a joint resignation letter by committee members that was released yesterday.

The previous head of the organizing committee, Yvon DesRochers, killed himself this month.

Tremblay retained only two original members, Richard Pound and Claude Lavoie. Pound will act as honorary chairperson of the committee. Lavoie, a member of the Aquatic Federation of Canada, is back as a member.

New additions include Aquatic Federation president Linda Cuthbert and federation member Gordon Peterson.

The mayor also appointed Montreal's highest-ranking civil servants, city manager Robert Abdallah and finance director Robert Cassius de Linval, to the organizing committee. Cassius de Linval will serve as secretary of the board while Abdallah will act as the city's representative on the board. The provincial and federal governments will each retain a representative on the board.

Guimond will be the only paid board member, earning about $150,000 between now and December, Tremblay said.

His first order of business will be to prepare a new budget for the games, Guimond said at the news conference.

Tremblay, Legault and Guimond said they will focus less on courting corporate sponsors and more on ensuring they sell out tickets and getting companies to contribute services or supplies for free.

"If we fill the stands, it's $15 million," Tremblay said.

All eyes will be on Tremblay, however.

In a speech to the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal earlier yesterday, Premier Jean Charest heaped praise on the mayor for "saving" the championships.

"The message is very clear," Tremblay said at city hall.

"We're going to have to communicate better, have a marketing plan and inform the citizens ... not only in Montreal, but throughout the province of Quebec and Canada that FINA is the second most important event after the Olympics."

Philip Authier of The Gazette contributed to this report.

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