All of the printing and media needs of the 2007 Canada Winter Games have been met, after a major announcement in Toronto Thursday.

Xerox Canada will bring four decades of experience supporting the Olympics to the table in Whitehorse, ensuring the results of every Canada Games event are on paper within seconds of the event's finish, and will also enable the Games host society to communicate consistently with the 3,500 athletes and coaches, 400 officials, hundreds of media and up to 800 VIPs.

'It was pretty exciting yesterday,' said Chris Morrissey, general manager of the 2007 Games, in an interview from Toronto this morning. 'It's been well over a year that we've been talking and negotiating with Xerox. We actually have a bunch of their equipment in our offices now.'

Xerox had been looking to get involved with more major sporting events outside of the Olympics, and thought the Canada Games was a great start, said Morrissey.

'This demonstrates our ability to provide world-class products and services to customers of all sizes and in all working environments,' said Charles Alexander, the vice-president of North American agent operations for Xerox Canada.

'At the same time, helping this country's young athletes on the road to representing Canada in the next Olympic Games gives us immense pride and satisfaction, and reinforces our core values of giving back to the communities where our customers and employees work and live.'

Xerox will provide nearly 60 pieces of equipment to a variety of venues, totalling a sponsorship value of $620,000 in products, services and supplies. Onsite Xerox personnel will support and maintain the equipment 24/7, as well as provide any non-paper consumables for the duration of the Games.

A print workload of about 2.1 million pages is expected by the end of the Games 563 pages per hour around the clock, or 28 pages per minute in a normal eight-hour working day.

'In a multi-sport event such as the Canada Games, speed and reliability are critical issues,' said Piers McDonald, president of the Games host society.

'We picked the Xerox team because they give us 100 per cent peace of mind that they can support us in a very time-sensitive environment.'

'We do a very good business in northern Canada and many of these people are our good customers, so it reinforces our desire to be a responsible citizen in northern Canada,' added Xerox chief executive officer and president Doug Lord.

Yesterday's press conference at the Olympic Spirit complex drew quite a bit of attention, as a sled dog team weaved through traffic up Yonge Street, bringing a taste of Canada's north into downtown Toronto.

Olympic gold medallist Marnie McBean was among the special guests present at the announcement, as well as two Special Olympics athletes.

The 2007 Games will include 2,700 athletes in 22 sports, which is more athletes and more sports than the Winter Olympic Games, and the budget is $18 million.

It will mark the first time the national multi-sport event will be held north of the 60th parallel, and the event is as important to the economies of the three territories as it will be to the athletes who participate in it.

While the City of Whitehorse will host the sporting events, the three territories have joined together, to promote and give exposure to Canada's entire north.

'It's the first time the Games have been held in the north, so we have to take advantage of it and use it to our own advantage as well,' said Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik.

'The Games will definitely assist us in promoting the opportunities we'd like to see for Nunavut, as well as promoting our territory to the rest of the country,' Okalik said.

'We are very rich in culture and resources, but we haven't tapped into the resources that we do have. Toronto is a great location where there are private investors who may want to come our way.

'There's quite a bit of activity and exploration in diamonds, gas and minerals and we'd love to see more. These opportunities give us the opportunity to catch up in terms of our economy.'

McDonald said the involvement of the three territories should make the Games more attractive to national sponsors.

'We also felt too, the Canada Games movement had to evolve,' McDonald said. 'The Games have been seen pretty much as a very attractive regional event. They really do take on the persona of the host city. That's made it actually difficult to bring corporate sponsors on side.'

As much excitement as there was in the air Thursday, Morrissey said the Games organizers are just getting started.

Trans Canada Pipelines, of Calgary, and Northwestel are the other two major sponsors which have already pledged their support for 2007, and he expects to announce four or five more major sponsors before Christmas.

A bank and an automotive company are among the corporate sponsors who are in the final stages of negotiations, he said.

'Our sponsorship goal is $7 million and before Christmas, we should be around $4 million,' he said. 'So we'll be more than halfway there (with more than another year to go until the Games), which is pretty significant.'