Canada Winter Games officials are searching for a place to store $500,000 worth of food after a local company revoked its sponsorship commitment five weeks before the sporting event begins.

In an interview Tuesday, Games manager Chris Morrissey said his organization will be calling local trucking companies and other businesses hoping to find anyone who could store the food destined for the tables of visiting athletes, coaches and managers.

The reason, Morrissey added, is that last Thursday, he received a letter from lawyers representing G-P Distributing Inc. informing him the refrigerators and transportation trucks offered to the Games are no longer available.

G-P Distributing Inc. is a food service wholesaler which operates in Whitehorse.

'We have received correspondence from their legal counsel withdrawing their support from the Games,' Morrissey told the Star.

The value of the support from G-P, he added, was estimated at $30,000.

'We're disappointed they've taken this course of action, that they've pulled their sponsorship at this time.

'We're here to deliver the Games in five weeks.'

Morrissey said G-P's pullout came shortly after the company learned it had not been awarded a $1.2-million Games contract for food services, which was tendered by Yukon College.

'The total value of the contract was $1.2 million. That includes food, labour, capital and contingencies,' he said, explaining the food portion of the contract was estimated at $500,000.

'They were under several assumptions with regards to our food services contract.'

Wayne Coghill, the director of administrative services for Yukon College, said this morning a total of seven companies were contacted in the invitational bid, which was issued in mid-December.

Coghill said three companies bid on the contract, which closed Dec. 28 with two vendors winning the award in a split.

The bids, he said, were evaluated based on food values.

After one of the companies turned down its portion of the contract, he added, the entire contract was awarded to Cisco Foods.

Reading from a letter from G-P's lawyers, Morrissey said his organization was informed of a number of reasons the company is withdrawing the sponsorship from the Games.

'In their letter, they state they assumed the Canada Games were actually going to procure the food for the Games.'

Morrissey said Games officials explained to G-P staff in a meeting that companies that sponsor the Games were not given preferential treatment when it came to the event's contracts, which are issued in a tendering process.

'We want to make it perfectly clear that because you are a sponsor of the Games doesn't guarantee you work at the Games,' he said.

Games president Piers McDonald said this morning he was disappointed to hear G-P is pulling out of its sponsorship commitments and is now looking to the Yukon's business community to lend a hand.

'It's always unfortunate to lose a sponsor; it's difficult to get sponsors in the first place.

'If there's anyone with available space, we'd certainly like to hear from anyone who can provide it, otherwise we're going to have to time our deliveries to minimize our space requirements.'

McDonald also said while there may be disappointment with the tendering process, his organization strives to ensure the process is transparent.

'We do need to ensure the integrity of the process, that it's open and fair.

'It's always unfortunate when misunderstandings or concerns arise,' he said.

Kyle Doll, the owner and operations manager of G-P Distributing Inc., said this morning he didn't want to comment on the matter.

'I don't wish to comment at this point. I was hoping the whole thing would go away quietly,' he said.

With files from Julia Skikavich.