In a celebration of the 2010 Winter Games, the Olympic and Paralympic Cauldron will become a permanent landmark on the Vancouver waterfront through a legacy partnership announced tonight between Terasen Gas Inc. and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC).

This legacy will ensure the cauldron, lit tonight by Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky at the conclusion of the spectacular Olympic Opening Ceremony at BC Place, will be a lasting reminder of the Games.

Gretzky, the all-time record holder for goals scored in the National Hockey League (NHL) and executive director of the Team Canada gold medal-winning men’s hockey team at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Games, ignited the almost 10-metre-high steel and glass cauldron after a flatbed truck transported him and the Olympic Flame through the streets of downtown Vancouver to the waterfront location.

“The cauldron and the flame ignite the spirit of the 2010 Winter Games and will be a source of inspiration to people in B.C. and around the world. Terasen Gas is pleased to partner with VANOC and this cauldron is a very fitting way for us to contribute to the Games and provide a legacy for British Columbians and all visitors to our province for years to come,” said Randy Jespersen, Terasen Gas Inc.’s president and CEO.

The cauldron, which VANOC designed and fabricated, is located on the west side of the International Broadcast Centre at Jack Poole Plaza at 1055 Canada Place. The plaza will be officially dedicated at a later date in memory of Poole; the founding chairman of VANOC’s board of directors. Poole passed away in October 2009 just hours after the Olympic Flame was lit in Greece signalling the start of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay.