Tag: Prince

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Tourism Prince George secured $100,000 grant to help bring business events and conferences to city

Tourism Prince George secured $100,000 grant to help bring business events and conferences to city

Meetings and conferences are making a comeback, and Tourism Prince George is ready for it.

Tourism Prince George was a recipient of the BC Business Events and Conference Restart Fund to the tune of $100,000. With part of this funding Tourism Prince George can now assist in bringing multi-day regional, national and international conferences and events to Prince George.

“The meetings, conferences and events sector is a huge economic driver within the tourism industry that has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Colin Carson, CEO of Tourism Prince George.

Now that safety measures have been gradually lifted, and confidence to have in-person meetings and events have rebounded, Tourism Prince George is excited to support the local hospitality and tourism industries.

“The restart grant allows us to be aggressive in attracting new business that will fill our hotel rooms and drive dollars into Prince George,” Carson said. “We are extremely thankful to the Province of British Columbia for this grant that allows Prince George to be competitive in the industry.”

The bulk of the funds will go towards assisting organizations with rental-fee incentives for meeting spaces such as hotel conference rooms, the Prince George Conference and Civic Centre and the Uda Dune Baiyoh (House of Ancestors). The remainder will be allocated to roll out a winter-meeting campaign to highlight Prince George as a conference destination. Tourism Prince George anticipates this support to have a dual impact: it will help drive accommodation stays (a funding requirement is a minimum of 100 booked rooms, which can be divided into multiple days), while providing financial backing for those wanting to host conferences and events.

For those interested in tapping into this resource, please contact Tourism Prince George.

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Woman charged with arson in Prince Albert event centre fire

Woman charged with arson in Prince Albert event centre fire


A 24-year-old woman has been charged with arson in connection to the Senator Allen Bird Memorial Centre fire.


The Prince Albert Deputy Fire Chief said the fire started on the lower office area of the building and it quickly spread to the second level on Friday morning.


The building is owned by the Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) and was a meeting spot for community events.


As a result of the fire, the Fine Arts Festival, sport tournaments, round dances and other events will be impacted.


The woman charged is set to make her first court appearance on Tuesday morning.

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Partygate: Fines issued by Metropolitan Police for events on eve of Prince Philip’s funeral

Partygate: Fines issued by Metropolitan Police for events on eve of Prince Philip's funeral

The Metropolitan Police have issued fines relating to Downing Street events that took place on the night before the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral last year, it has emerged.

Last week the force issued 20 fixed penalty notices to people who attended lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street and Whitehall.

Some of these were for two separate events on 16 April 2021, when advisers and civil servants are said to have gathered after work.

Prince Philip died on 9 April 2021 and his funeral was on 17 April in Windsor.

Pall Bearers carrying the coffin of the Duke of Edinburgh, followed by the Prince of Wales and Princess Anne. Pic: AP
Image:
Only 30 people were able to attend Prince Philip’s funeral. Pic: AP

One of the events was for James Slack, the former Downing Street director of communications, and the other was for a photographer.

Number 10 staff were said to have partied until the early hours of the morning in a seven-hour drinking session with takeaway pizzas.

Some attendees are said to have used a slide belonging to Wilfred, the one-year-old son of Boris and Carrie Johnson.

More on Downing Street Parties

The Queen was pictured alone at St George’s Chapel the next day, sitting socially distanced from her family as she said goodbye to her husband.

Number 10 previously said an apology had been extended to Buckingham Palace.

The Met Police are investigating 12 events that allegedly broke lockdown rules in Westminster, including as many as six that Mr Johnson is said to have attended, and has sent out more than 100 questionnaires and so far issued 20 fines.

The prime minister has not been fined in the first tranche of fixed penalty notices, which are worth £50.

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Partygate ‘an issue of integrity’

The prime minister received his questionnaire in February but he will not be interviewed by the force, according to ITV News.

The force is not interviewing those who have been sent questionnaires and could potentially be fined, it said.

Only “witnesses”, whose role is to help officers interpret questionnaires will be questioned.

Number 10 has said it will confirm if Mr Johnson or Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, are given a fixed penalty notice.

Mr Johnson is not said to have attended the events on 16 April.

The Met Police declined to comment. The Cabinet Office also said it had nothing to add.

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Easter sale, art contest, spring fair among weekend events in Prince George

Easter sale, art contest, spring fair among weekend events in Prince George

There will be more to buy at the second annual Easter Eggstravaganza next weekend.

The Prince George Public Library and Studio 2880 hosted their fifth annual Teen Art Showcase Saturday.

Thirty-three teens submitted art to the contest. Over 400 people cast a vote for the People’s Choice Award.

The winners were announced at the Bob Harkins location.

Winners were chosen for the following categories: Best Use of Material, Best Social Commentary, Most Original, People’s Choice and Best Overall.

The Blackburn Community Centre hosted its first-ever Spring Fair Saturday and Sunday (April 2 and 3).

Usually, they put on a winter fair but with so much support, a Spring Fair was planned as well for vendors to show off their products. Organizers hope that it will become an annual event.

The PG Roll A Dome was busy on Saturday hosting the annual Small Business Fair where they welcome people from all over Northern BC.

It was a chance for vendors to show off their products and services to the community while also promoting their small businesses.

The dome was filled with over 80+ small businesses and had a massive turnout.

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Prince Andrew payments controversy – a timeline of events

Prince Andrew is facing calls to explain why he received £1m in payments linked to a financier who is now facing allegations of fraud in the high court.

In 2019, Andrew received £750,000 from Nebahat Isbilen, a Turkish millionaire and wife of a former leading politician, who has claimed in the high court that she was told by her financial adviser, Selman Turk, to pay the sum to the prince in return for assistance with a passport application.

Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, have also been named in court documents for the case, in which Isbilen claims she was defrauded by Turk of up to £40m. Turk denies the allegations.

Here is a timeline of events linked to the latest controversy to embroil the Duke of York:

  • 2005 Andrew is reported to have met Tarek Kaituni, a Libyan national with a conviction for gun smuggling, who is said to have facilitated meetings between Andrew and former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

  • 2009 Beatrice is reported to have received a £20k diamond necklace from Kaituni for her 21st birthday, months before the duke allegedly lobbied a British company on his behalf.

  • 2014 After being stripped of his role as trade envoy, Andrew launches Pitch@Palace, a Dragon’s Den-style project, in which budding entrepreneurs would be given the opportunity to woo successful business people with rapid-fire pitches.

  • 12 October 2018 Eugenie marries brand ambassador Jack Brooksbank. Kaituni is said to have attended the wedding.

  • May to June 2019 It is reported that Kaituni introduces Selman Turk to Andrew at a birthday celebration at Windsor Castle.

  • July 2019 The Duchess of York is unveiled as an ambassador for Pegasus, for which she later receives payment via one of Turk’s companies, amounting to £225,000.

  • October 2019 It is reported that two payments were made by Turk to Eugenie amounting to approximately £25,000. She denies knowing Turk or Isbilen.

  • 6 November 2019 The annual Pitch@Palace event is held at St James’s Palace. Turk wins the people’s choice award, voted for by the audience, for his pitch for his company Heyman AI, a digital bank aimed at millennials.

  • 14 November 2019 Andrew’s then-aide Amanda Thirsk has a conversation with Isbilen’s bank, in which Thirsk says a payment of £750k to be paid to Andrew relates to a wedding gift for Beatrice. The transcript is later published in the Daily Mail.

  • 15 November 2019 A transfer of £750k is made from Isbilen’s account to Andrew’s personal Coutts account. She later says Turk told her it was in return for assistance with a passport application.

  • 5 December 2019 Andrew allegedly visits Turk at his apartment in South Kensington, it is reported.

  • February 2020 Turk and Kaituni are pictured at what is believed to be Frogmore House, a royal residence in Windsor Home Park.

  • July 2020 Beatrice marries property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.

  • March 2021 Lawyers acting for Isbilen approach Andrew over the £750k payment. He does not comment but repays the money in full.

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Ubisoft Showcase Event Rumored to be Revealing Unannounced Games Like New Prince of Persia

Ubisoft Showcase Rumor

EA may well have canceled their plans to hold EA Play Live this year, there are still companies planning on holding their own showcases. The latest rumor says Ubisoft is one of those, with a showcase lineup that is due to reveal several unannounced games like a new Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed Rift.

What will be announced at the Ubisoft Showcase event?

Assassin's Creed Infinity

The Ubisoft Showcase event was due to include a lineup of around 20 games according to Xfire, who has information from “several sources with direct knowledge of Ubisoft’s plans”. Some of these games are brand new titles that have yet to be announced, including a sequel to Immortals Fenyx Rising, Assassin’s Creed Rift, a new Prince of Persia title, and The Crew 3. Other titles likely to have featured were Skull & Bones, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, The Division Heartland, Assassin’s Creed Infinity, Ghost Recon Frontline, XDefiant, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, Splinter Cell Remake, and Beyond Good & Evil 2.

Ubisoft was hoping to hold the showcase before E3 2022, but recent events like the Russian invasion of Ukraine meant the event has been put on hold. However, the event is still expected to take place at a later time, but there’s now a chance not all of the titles will be at the show. Ubisoft is yet to comment on the rumors, so make sure to take this with a pinch of salt until a show is actually announced.

In other news, a new game in The Witcher franchise will kick off a brand new saga, but CD Projekt Red is being very coy on any details. We do know the game will be switching to Unreal Engine 5 instead of RedEngine. Elsewhere, Sony is adding another studio to the PlayStation Studios group, this time in the form of Jade Raymond’s Haven Studios.