Imagining a 2035 Canada Winter Games in Yellowknife

Long-track speed skating on Frame Lake. An opening ceremony in a giant wintertime tent. Canada’s top young athletes on NWT classroom floors.

Depending on your point of view, there’s a lot to love in that paragraph or it sounds like hell on earth for all involved.

As the governments of Yellowknife and the NWT seriously consider bidding to host the 2035 Canada Winter Games, more documents are emerging that show how officials are weighing up their options.

Yellowknife City Council will meet on Wednesday this week to get an update from staff. City employees are expected to say that despite the “substantial financial, staffing and organizational commitments” required according to a briefing note, council should also see the issue through the lens of growing investment in the territory, economic opportunities associated with hosting, and increasing support from people whose backing is vital.

Territorial sports organizing body Sport North, the Indigenous Sports Circle of the NWT and, most critically, the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce have all written letters expressing strong support for the 2035 Canada Games coming north.

The Games “present an opportunity to position Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories as a leader in northern innovation, collaboration, and community development while serving as a catalyst for long-term economic growth,” the chamber wrote at the end of June.

An independently prepared feasibility assessment has already concluded the NWT is capable of hosting the Games, though there would be “lots to work through.”

Ahead of this week’s meeting, the city made public another document – a technical site visit report from the Canada Games Council.

In December last year, the Canada Games Council (which oversees the Games) sent two people to Yellowknife for a preliminary glance at the different facilities available. They also went to Hay River and were briefed on facilities in Behchokǫ̀.

Their conclusions help to paint a picture of how a 2035 Canada Games might actually look if the NWT hosted. Which sports would go where? Where would everyone sleep? Which sports would have to be dropped?

“With some compromises to existing minimum Canada Games sport venue standards, NWT has many of the sport venues necessary to host a Canada Games,” reads the headline finding from the site visit.

Alpine skiing, freestyle skiing and snowboarding would need to be held elsewhere or not at all, but most other sports can be found a home in the territory, the Canada Games Council asserted in its report.

Meanwhile, in the absence of the large-scale university accommodation that ordinarily houses athletes when the Canada Games are in the south, the country’s top young athletes may find themselves sleeping in NWT classrooms in 2035.

For once in their lives, that might confer something bordering on home advantage to the NWT’s athletes. Athletes from smaller communities, in particular, spend their childhoods putting up with all kinds of rickety arrangements for the chance to go play sport somewhere.

The tone of the site visit report suggests that classrooms are a perfectly acceptable outcome.

“The most promising scenario would be to utilize school classrooms throughout Yellowknife and at the Diamond Jenness Secondary School in Hay River,” the report states. That would keep the big hotels free for dignitaries and competitors’ families and friends.

The city says it recognizes that the Canada Games – usually held between February and March – would be arriving at the same time as peak aurora tourism season, an unhelpful clash. But the municipality’s staff say aurora season is an annual treat, whereas the Canada Games is once in a lifetime.

“While there is potential for some displacement of existing aurora tourism activity during the Games period, Administration notes that the long-term tourism and destination development impacts may extend well beyond the event itself,” the briefing note for council states.

“Hosting a national event such as the Canada Winter Games would help build organizational capacity within local sport organizations, strengthen volunteer leadership, enhance event management expertise, and potentially support infrastructure improvements that increase the City’s ability to attract and host future events.

“The legacy of hosting such an event could create opportunities for Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories to attract future sporting events, conferences and other major gatherings for decades following the Games.”

Speaking of infrastructure improvements, the documents published ahead of Wednesday’s council meeting provide a tantalizing glimpse of some of the asks the city and territory might make.

If federal funding or sponsorship can be found, the potential exists for hosting the Games to attract new facilities.

The site visit report suggests the Canada Games might be a catalyst for more housing to be built, first as athlete accommodation before being turned into affordable homes. The Canada Games Council also notes that the massive military spending coming to the city might feasibly result in military accommodation that could be repurposed for the Games (though the Department of National Defence has suggested that, at least for the foreseeable future, not that many extra people will actually be assigned to Yellowknife.)

The report also raises the possibility of Yellowknife getting a new ice surface out of the Games.

“It was noted during the visit that ice time during peak hours is maxed out in Yellowknife,” the report states, and “a fourth ice surface (200′ x 85′) would leave a lasting sport legacy in Yellowknife and help alleviate some of the challenges” of hosting the Games in the city.

The report notes the NWT could partner with the Yukon – Whitehorse hosted the Canada Winter Games in 2007 – or northern Alberta to get some of the organization across the line.

A large tent with seating for 4,500 people is suggested as an opening and closing ceremony venue, based on how Whitehorse handled the same problem of having no permanent venue big enough.

Much of the space at Yellowknife’s Chateau Nova and Explorer hotels would be turned over for use as food services, athlete entertainment and a polyclinic. Aurora College would provide centres for the various provincial and territorial teams’ operations.

Here’s a breakdown of how the site visit report assessed various venues across Yellowknife and beyond.

No decision has been made on hosting the Games. The NWT government says its assessment is ongoing, while the city’s recommendation is to keep talking for the time being, without ruling anything in or out.

What could go where?

The technical site visit report made some initial, speculative assessments of which sports might be hosted at which venue.

The following details are by no means confirmed if the Canada Games do come to the NWT in 2035, but give a sense of how organizers are looking at the available facilities.

YELLOWKNIFE SPORTS FACILITIES

Aquatic Centre: Was assessed for diving and artistic swimming (formerly known as synchronized swimming) and doesn’t have most of the diving infrastructure needed, but could get away with artistic swimming even though the pool is a little shallow in places and the warm-up pool doesn’t meet requirements

Bristol Pit: The former gravel pit is Yellowknifers’ only way to try snowboarding or freeski. Doesn’t meet any competition standard but could be home to a modified event that wouldn’t normally be in the Canada Games

Community Arena: Fifteen feet too short for hockey, “would require a compromise” for the sport to be held here

Curling Club: Good to go for Canada Games curling

Fieldhouse: Could host up to three of archery, badminton, boccia, fencing, gymnastics, judo, karate, table tennis, target shooting and trampoline

Frame Lake: Might end up as the long-track speed skating venue. “Venue would be a complete temporary build. The challenge would be getting the quality of ice to a level that satisfies,” read the site visit report

Multiplex: Approved to host short-track speed skating, figure skating and hockey

Racquet Club: Courts don’t have glass backs, which would be an issue although not necessarily a dealbreaker

Ski Club: Could host cross-country skiing and biathlon, but would need “capital work to trial network” and an expanded biathlon range

YELLOWKNIFE SCHOOLS

Sir John: Boccia, although the school’s facilities don’t fully meet the requirements (and it’s also not clear if boccia would be among the finalized events)

St Joe’s: Karate

Weledeh and St Pat’s: Wheelchair basketball and one of archery, gymnastics, boccia, fencing, judo, karate, table tennis or target shooting

OTHER NWT SPORTS FACILITIES

Behchokǫ̀ Kǫ̀ Gocho Sportsplex: Relatively new facility that meets the standard for two of archery, badminton, boccia, fencing, gymnastics, judo, karate, table tennis, target shooting and trampoline

Hay River Community Centre: Could host ringette

Hay River Curling Club: Possible mixed doubles curling venue

Hay River Ski Club: Could host cross-country skiing and biathlon, but would need “capital work to trial network” and an expanded biathlon range (the same verdict that Yellowknife’s ski club received)

OTHER NWT SCHOOLS

Hay River – Diamond Jenness: Was considered for boccia but it sounds like a no, gymnasium might be needed for athlete services if some athletes are hosted at the school