As New Brunswickers look ahead to welcoming the country’s top athletes for the 2029 Canada Summer Games, the bidding process to determine which city will be awarded host status is officially underway.
The announcement, which featured representatives from New Brunswick’s provincial government and the Canada Games Council, took place at the Fredericton Convention Centre on Wednesday. All prospective locations, including Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton, have until next month to confirm their intention to bid.
Tammy Scott-Wallace, the province’s minister of tourism, said the selected host city will receive $10.35 million over a four-year period to ensure the necessary facilities are obtained to host the country’s largest amateur multi-sport event.
“I think everyone in New Brunswick understands the value of the Canada Games in terms of the pride that it instills. There’s so much to celebrate when our young athletes take the stage,” she said, mentioning that the eight-figure investment is what the Canada Games Council requires from provincial governments to effectively co-ordinate the event.
Scott-Wallace said $3 million of the total amount will be spent on infrastructure, while the remaining $7 million will be allocated toward hiring staff, finding office space and the overall operations of the event.
“We do have a budget item for the development of our athletes that is separate from this Canada Games bid,” she added. “This is a great opportunity for us to develop our athletes here in New Brunswick because we want our own athletes to be successful at home.”
Despite the result of the bid, the Sussex-Fundy-St. Martins MLA said she hopes the three cities will collaborate to provide accommodations and other services to the country’s top athletes when they descend upon New Brunswick in five years’ time.
“Let’s face it, we’re a small province, we have people coming across the country in 2029 for the Summer Games and that’s going to mean airport accommodations, hotel accommodations, transportation from here and there. We anticipate partnerships being necessary.”
When asked why a joint bid between all three cities isn’t being proposed, Scott-Wallace said the opportunity needs to be offered to the individual cities first to determine whether or not there’s an interest.
“Perhaps they don’t all want to be a part of it,” she said. “We have to give the opportunity to our three largest cities to come up with a plan, determine whether or not they do have an interest in hosting, and they’ll really take it from there. The Canada Games Council will make that decision, it won’t be me making the decision on where these Games are held.”
Communication officials from Moncton and Saint John both said that their respective cities are actively exploring what a potential bid would look like — and while Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers didn’t completely rule out the possibility, she said hosting the Games isn’t a priority for her city’s council at this time.
“We have our finger in so many pots, we have so many other areas that we’re focusing on right now, it’s just not something that’s being talked about a lot,” she said.
“Mainly because we are working on so many other things in this city so there’s only so much capacity and that’s not been our focus for now.”
As for representatives from the tournament, Aaron Bruce, vice-president of sport for the Canada Games Council, said his department will be focusing heavily on “infrastructure capacity” when considering its options.
“Do you have the sports venues, do you have a big enough space for accommodations, do you have space for opening and closing ceremonies, those types of things. So, we’re really looking at the community’s capacity to host the Games from that perspective,” he said, adding that opportunities for community and corporate partnerships along with volunteer engagement will play a big role in the decision.
Bruce said he “wasn’t acutely aware” that making the event up for grabs in New Brunswick could only further ignite a rivalry between the province’s three main cities.
“I think it always does raise a bit of friendly competition between communities. There’s a significant economic impact in community development that comes with hosting the Canada Games and we want communities to be excited about that and put their best foot forward,” he said.
“At the end of the day, whatever community’s successful, the province as a whole will see a benefit from hosting the Games.”
According to a release from the New Brunswick government, the bids will be assessed in two phases by the bid evaluation committee and technical review committee.
“Both phases include a formal submission by the bid committees representing each municipality, as well as a site visit by the Canada Games Council committee,” the release stated. “The technical review phase will be conducted this June and July to assess the ability of each city to host the Games based on standards for sport venues, non-sport venues, and the Games Village.”
The following phase is a “comprehensive review,” slated for early 2025, leading to the announcement of a host city in March 2025.
The Canada Summer Games, which were most recently held in Niagara Falls, Ont., in 2022, feature two weeks of competitions for between 16 and 20 sports, typically involving about 4,000 participants overall per tournament.
“The Canada Summer Games are expected to generate about $200 million in economic spending in the host province or territory,” the provincial release added.
New Brunswick cities have hosted two Canada Games in the past. Out of the three main cities expected to be in contention for the 2029 Games, Saint John is the only location to have previously hosted, when the 1985 Summer Games came to the port city. Bathurst-Campbellton hosted the Winter Games in 2003.