The NWT’s communities minister says he will not attend next month’s Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse as a cost-saving measure.
“I’ve asked the department to take me off the list to travel there to help save money, and hopefully use some of that money for the athletes and their travels,” Vince McKay told the legislature, while admitting he also has “a few things going on.”
McKay’s department administers a funding pot known as the Physical Activity, Sport and Recreation Fund that covers costs related to amateur sport in the NWT.
Money for the fund comes from lottery tickets. Slowing sales and an increase in unregulated online gaming mean the fund’s revenue has recently declined, the minister said.
To cut costs, trials for the upcoming Games were hosted exclusively in the Yellowknife area rather than the past practice of including multiple communities.
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The territorial government defended that decision on the grounds that the alternative was to send fewer athletes to the Games.
Now, the GNWT is proposing to prop up the fund by assigning $2.76 million to it each year for the next three years, on top of the usual lottery revenue stream.
Answering questions from MLAs about Maca’s proposed budget, department deputy minister Gary Brennan said “anyone who can read these financial statements” could see the fund is in financial difficulty.
“This funding is going to help us get through the next couple of years and maintain the current level of funding that we are providing our sport partners, including Sport North, Indigenous Sports Circle, Mackenzie Rec Association and our territorial sport organizations,” Brennan said.
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In the meantime, he said, the GNWT will “come up with a sustainable plan – how we fund all of these recreation and sporting events going forward.”
In October, the regulation of online gambling was brought up by Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart.
At the time, McKay told Testart work was taking place “in the background” to evaluate potential regulation of iGaming.
In late 2024, a committee of MLAs heard about the possible benefits of regulation, such as added revenue for the territory.
Speaker Shane Thompson will still attend this year’s Arctic Winter Games, as he has in the past, McKay said. Thompson was the previous Maca minister.
