UPDATE!
There are reports the Group of 20 economic summit, set for next June, will not be held in Ontario's picturesque cottage country after all, because the logistics and security planning are proving too challenging.

According to The Globe and Mail, the Harper government now plans to move the G-20 summit from the town of Huntsville three hours south to Toronto.

The related, but separate, G8 gathering will remain in the community of Huntsville.

The newspaper says the demands of lodging and security for the scores of people expected to attend the G20 conference have threatened to overwhelm the rural district.

Each G20 leader will be coming with a huge delegation of advisers and the summit will also draw observers from the European Union, African states and the United Nations. Thousands of journalists and news crews are also expected to attend.

Not only did accomodations prove to be a challenge, the security and logistical requirements would have overwhelmed the town of 18,000.

So a senior Ontario government official tells The Globe it is his understanding that the G20 will now be held in Toronto or a neighbouring suburb.

A spokesman for federal Industry Minister Tony Clement, however, said no decision has been made to move the G20 meeting from Muskoka. Darren Cunningham, director of communications for Clement, told The Globe the federal government is still examining the feasibility of hosting the event in Muskoka.

Canada had always planned to host the G8 meeting in Huntsville. But its plans were disrupted in late September when world leaders decided the G20 -- which includes bigger developing countries such as China and India, not just the wealthiest eight industrialized nations -- would supplant the G8 as the key international economic council.

The G8 will now focus mostly on international security and non-economic issues.

The G8 meeting alone is expecting 5,000 journalists, several thousand protesters, and tens of thousands of political and security aides.

The government of Canada has committed more than $50 million to prepare the region for the summit, including funding to overhaul roads and the local airport, and to construct a G8 Centre in Huntsville, which will eventually be used by the town as a state-of-the-art recreation centre.

To stay up to date on the Summit 
http://www.TorontoG20Summit.com

Canada will host the 2010 G8 & G20 Summits in Huntsville, Ontario, in the heart of Muskoka. The area was chosen after a Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade study deemed the 800-acre Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville an excellent site for the event. The location was chosen based on the need for appropriate accommodation and meeting facilities, good transportation links, including proximity to major airports, and acceptable security conditions. The study took costs into account, as well as the prospect of minimal disruption for local residents and businesses. Canada's past experience hosting the G8 Summit has shown there are substantial short-term economic benefits for the host community and surrounding region, plus long-term tourism-related benefits resulting from international media exposure. The 2002 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta generated an estimated $300 million in short-term regional economic benefits.

The G8 is an informal group of eight of the world's leading economic powers: Canada, France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, and Italy. The annual summit is a chance for the leaders of the G8 countries to meet face-to-face and develop common approaches to urgent challenges facing the world. The first summit, with six countries participating, was held in 1975 in Rambouillet, France. A year later, the group expanded to include Canada. Russia joined the summit process in 1997. The G8 has evolved from a forum dealing largely with macroeconomic issues to an annual meeting with a broad-based agenda addressing a wide range of international economic, political, and social issues.

Not all demonstrations will originate from outside the local community. For example, one 2008 letter to the editor of the Huntsville Forester suggested that the way in which local communities plan for 2010 could be seen as an "incredible opportunity to demonstrate for change in the world:"

"The summit will bring a lot of activity and money .... So, how will we, as a network of communities, move into it? Will the money drive us? Or will we take a larger position by looking to create future-friendly businesses that will continue to thrive long after the summit is over? Will we choose greed or balance as the underlying intent? Intention matters. As the first plans and preparations are being laid, this might be a good time to take steps such as networking with outlying communities and forming focus groups to define some of these goal

Security

Security planning is designed to ensure that the summit agenda can remain a primary focus of the attendees' discussions; but from the outset, local authorities were no less concerned with figuring out how to make the security footprint bearable. In February 2009, local residents and their representatives were working together to anticipate what it is likely to be like to live through a period of heightened security; and the RCMP and OPP were still conducting security reviews of the area and event

The security zones are likely to be split up into concentric rings with the summit site at the center. The innermost security zone will be handled by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) because the RCMP have jurisdiction over the security of international guests and dignitaries. The second ring outside the innermost one will be under the management of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP.

The RCMP and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will coordinate decision-making about establishing no-fly zones during the summit

Budget

The Canadian government announced that the nation expects to invest $50 million in hosting the G-8 summit in 2010; and the community celebrated followed the announcement. Federal funding will support construction plans for a new media centre which will be later converted into a second ice pad for Huntsville. The announced federal funding will pay for runway-resurfacing at North Bay's Jack Garland Airport, with about $5 million coming from the G8 fund and another $5.3 million being provided under the federal Airports Capital Assistance Program