G-8/20 Media Center pavilion has cost Canada Govt.1.9 million dollars.

TORONTO - An indoor pavilion in the Media Centre at the G-20 Summit in Toronto, has cost the Canadian Government and provincial governments 1.9 million dollars.

It has an indoor lake and dock, complete with a Muskoka chair and the soothing sounds of calling loons, will be built to give visiting journalists a taste of Canadian cottage country.

Dubbed the Canadian Corridor, it is a 20,000-square-foot exhibit built in the Direct Energy Centre at the Canadian National Exhibition.

About 2,000 reporters are expected to cover the G-8 Summit in Huntsville and the G-20 Summit in Toronto,only 200 will travel to the Deerhurst Resort in Muskoka.

The rest of the international press is be sequestered at the CNE, where a showroom will be divided into three sections: one that will recreate the Muskoka region and another, dubbed CityScape, which will showcase a replica of the Toronto Stock Exchange and other city landmarks. The third area is called “the Bridge,” and will host local experts and visiting dignitaries who will address the media.

The Toronto-based Lord Cultural Resources has created the media centre.

In Toronto, the Canadian Corridor will be open and staffed 24 hours a day, and journalists will also be given special edition BlackBerrys loaded with promotional material.

There will also be an artist-in-residence program and the entire event will be catered by Savour Muskoka, which will feed journalists recipes created from regional produce shipped down from the area.

The cost of hosting the two back-to-back summits has been estimated at close to billion dollars, with much of the money going towards security preparations.

The government is also shelling out for a variety of projects intended to impress dignitaries, media and locals. By Ashok Dixit (ANI)