There will be no Arctic Winter Games in the NWT come the year 2028. That was confirmed late last week by the GNWT.
Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) Minister Vince McKay announced that the territory would not move ahead with a bid to host the Games in four years time. A release from the GNWT stated "a range of reasons" for deciding not to pursue a bid, but the main reason, according to McKay, was that communities aren't ready to even consider hosting large events right now.
McKay said the decision was given to the AWG International Committee at the beginning of October.
"Several communities are still dealing with the effects of evacuation from the wildfires and other events," he told NNSL Media in an interview on Oct. 25. "We need some time to get things back in order and we'll be in a better place to host again."
The last time the Games were in the NWT was in 2018 when Hay River and Fort Smith were co-hosts that year. 2026 was supposed to be the next time the NWT was scheduled to host in the rotation, but that fell by the wayside when a deal between MACA and the City of Yellowknife couldn't be reached. Yukon, which was scheduled to host in 2028, agreed to take on hosting duties for 2026 and swapped places with the NWT.
Whitehorse will be the next host city in two years time.
McKay said concerns about capacity and the ability to host a large event were also part of the decision.
"It's getting tougher for smaller communities to consider hosting because they don't have a lot of what the larger centres have," he said. "It's already tough for a city like Yellowknife to host and the size of the Games now makes it really hard for smaller communities to get involved."
Capacity was one of the issues identified in the post-Games report issued by the Town of Hay River, specifically a shortage of accommodations. A lack of volunteers was another issue.
The cost of hosting the Games is always a concern. The 2022 AWG in Wood Buffalo, Alta., had a estimated price tag in excess of $13 million, while the 2024 AWG in Mat-Su, Alaska, took more than $10 million to pull off. The 2018 AWG in Hay River and Fort Smith cost around $10 million when all the bills were counted.
McKay said one of the things the GNWT plans to do is to talk with the international committee about the sustainability of the Games going forward.
"We want to make sure that our athletes still have a chance to represent their territory and have something to work toward," he said. "We'll have athletes from Yellowknife and Hay River and such who will always make a Canada Winter Games team, for example, but we need to ensure that the cross-country skier from Colville Lake or the volleyball player from Fort Resolution still has a chance. That's what I want to fight for and that's what I want to keep for the future."
And to the question of whether the NWT will ever host the Games again, McKay said there is no question.
"We're not saying we won't ever host again," he said. "We just need to help communities build the capacity to do that and I'm looking forward to when we host the next time."
