Thank you, Mr. Speaker. About a month ago the Arctic Winter Games International Committee released the list of sports for the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. Their announcement caused a great deal of consternation within the northern sport community. Simply put, most ice sports, those sports integral to the first Arctic Winter Games over 40 years ago – 1970 to be exact – have been dropped for the 2016 games.
Curling, figure skating, midget hockey, dog mushing are gone, as are speed skating and gymnastics. Now, it’s not unusual for Arctic Winter Games host communities to reduce the sports during games due to a facility’s limitations. But it’s never happened before to this extent.
Previous games in the NWT, for instance, have not had downhill skiing. We just don’t have that facility to handle that kind of competition. But to remove six sports because of a lack of facilities is unprecedented and flies in the face of the International Committee’s express reason for being.
The impact on our young athletes will be huge and the greatest impact will fall on our 10 to 12 year olds. The 2016 games are when they will shine. As one Yukoner put it, "The Arctic Winter Games is the big time for them. This is their Olympics.” Without that opportunity in their current chosen sport, our young athletes will change their sport. Speed skaters will move to hockey or volleyball, for instance, because they know that staying in their sport means they will miss out on the Arctic Winter Games experience.
A whole cohort of our athletes will lose out, and why? Because of the International Committee’s policy. The International Committee has decreed there will not be another two-site games as happened in 2002. The International Committee requires that all athletes be at both opening and closing ceremonies for the games.
The Arctic Winter Games International Committee needs to seriously reconsider the ramifications of their recent decisions and the impact of their policies. They must be less rigid, must find flexibility in their policies and their rules so that the games can be run in the best interests of the athletes. I cannot understand how the International Committee can reconcile their never again two-site games, with their recent decision to host hockey in Iqaluit with the rest of the games in Nuuk in 2016. It makes no sense to me.
I was very pleased last week to hear that several northern sports Ministers are as concerned about the situation as northern sportspeople are, and that they recently met with the International Committee to discuss solutions.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
I applaud the efforts of the northern sports Ministers and I encourage them to keep up the pressure on the International Committee. Northern governments fund the games. We must influence the International Committee to amend their decisions. The five dropped sports and midget hockey must be accommodated somewhere for the 2016 games. If not in Nuuk, then in the NWT or Yukon as has been offered. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
