City council voted Monday to throw its support behind hosting the 2026 Arctic Winter Games 
in Whitehorse.

Representatives of Sport Yukon addressed council at the beginning of the meeting to describe the importance of the Games to youth, the city and sports in general.

Stacey Lewis, president of Sport Yukon, told council the organization was there to offer the support and encouragement of the sport community to have council vote yes to hosting the 2026 Games.

Council approved the request for support subject to the receipt of the Yukon government’s financial and other commitments by July 28.

A preliminary budget has been set at $9.5 million.

Administration has advised council that the city would be expected to contribute $250,000, as well as $500,000 in in-kind services.

The federal operating grant would be $1.55 million, while the territorial operating grant would be $4 million, along with $350,000 in in-kind services.

Council also authorized city administration to enter into negotiations with the Arctic Winter Games international committee to host the 2026 event.

Sport Yukon, Lewis told council, has the benefit of using a lot of the work the Whitehorse host society put into preparing the 2020 Games that were eventually cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lewis told council the city has the facilities and infrastructure required to host the Games, as well as the experience.

Sport Yukon has the support of Yukon University, the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, the Yukon Convention Bureau and the Tourism Industry Association of the Yukon, which are planning for the delivery of the Games.

The vision of these Games, she said, reaches back to 2020.

“The sport community encourages council to vote yes to this opportunity,” she said.

Lewis said the required volunteers for the cancelled 2020 Games were set to go.

As well, more people are showing an interest as they emerge from the pandemic.

The city, she said, does have the capacity.

Asked whether they’re confident in being able to put the necessary sponsorship in place, Tracey Bilsky, Sport Yukon’s executive director, said the matter of finances will be an issue to be managed by the host society when it’s formed.

But she also noted they ended up with a $500,000 surplus with the cancellation of the 2020 event – money that is now available to help with the 2026 Games.

Bilsky said sponsors continue to support the Games because they like the deliverables the spectacle provides.

The Games, she said, also provide access to national sponsors.

“We hope to go back to those sponsors,” she said.

Asked how important the Games are to the development of local sport, Bilsky said they’re important.

“We are really thankful we have the Arctic Winter Games every two years,” she said.

“These are Games that are more important to our northern athletes than something like the Canada Games,” she said.

“We do not have the opportunity to shine like we do at the Arctic Winter Games.”

To be able to compete and perform against athletes and cultural participants from the Canadian Pan North is extremely important for the development of every generation, Bilsky said.

The AWG participants, she said, are getting development opportunities in a little bit of a different way, but it’s equally important.

Extra competition is beneficial to them, she said.

Bilsky said there are not many opportunities for athletes in the cultural sports to compete in Arctic sports and Dene Games.

Kids, she said, are staying with their sports from one Games to the next.

Bilsky said what’s important is what they can learn from the Games.

“If anyone has ever witnessed the Arctic sports competition at the Arctic Winter Games, it is one of the more special things you will ever see,” she said.

The athletes learn about the different cultures of the different athletes from one another, she said.

She said they learn from their adult instructors and coaches, and they develop a sense of wanting to see everybody succeed.

“These are opportunities that do not exist with things like the Canada Games,” Bilsky said.

Russia had been scheduled to host the 2026 event – prior to the country beginning the war against Ukraine in 2022.