Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand said the municipality is expecting tens of thousands of people to flock there for the visit and has been preparing for a variety of scenarios.
Newsroom (14/07/2022 9:42 AM Gaudium Press)The city will be restricting traffic and securing two outdoor areas where people can watch the Pope’s mass on July 28 on big screens.
That mass will take place in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, 30 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, in the basilica that is one of Canada’s five national shrines. The service will be open to the public, but space in the church will be limited.
Picard said the information about how many spots will be available for First Nations in Quebec remains unclear but that “the priority should be the survivors.”
“I think the church needs to understand that this has to be respected,” he said.
He said many of the survivors and their families were interested in attending the mass and had been asking the assembly how they could secure a spot and that it is important to prioritize them first.
Marchand said another critical part of the planning is to ensure Indigenous pilgrims will have easy access to the sites by providing public transportation, for example.
The mayor said the city expects the visit to cost between $1 and $2 million, but it doesn’t yet have an exact price tag. He noted that the federal government will reimburse the city for most of those costs, as the city’s economy and tourism sector will significantly benefit from the visit.
The Quebec archdiocese expects to spend about $3 million on the Pope’s visit, with much of that funding coming from donations, according to Benoît Thibault, the deacon in charge of the planning committee for the Pope’s visit in Quebec.
(Via CBC )
Compiled by Raju Hasmukh
