Louise Blanchard knows a thing or two about the cost of driving from Dawson City to Whitehorse.

Blanchard shares that weekly duty with Karen McIntyre to drive their daughters, Natalja Blanchard and Christina McIntyre, into the city for Canada Winter Games girls hockey practice.

The travel subsidy the two parents usually receive from Sport Yukon will also be offered for Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada. Activities for the event will run from Feb. 8 to Feb. 12.

"The travel subsidy is great,” said Louise, who is secretary-treasurer for Dawson City Minor Hockey. "It's a great program. Even though they don't do accommodations, basically we'd be making the trip anyway, so any money we can get is great … because it is expensive to travel from one community to another.”

The Local Organizing Committee (LOC) for the event announced yesterday that it will offer an In Territory Travel Subsidy for youth in Yukon communities to travel to Whitehorse to attend and participate in Hockey Day events.

"If we're billing this Hockey Day in Canada as Hockey Day in the Yukon, then it's fantastic that they'd offer a subsidy,” Blanchard said.

The travel subsidy will be eligible for vehicles carrying kids who are under 16.

Eligible Old Crow applications will be subsidized for air travel.

The subsidy will be based on five cents per person per kilometre, which includes an adult, with a maximum of four persons per vehicle. For example, vehicles containing four people traveling from Dawson (round trip: 1,077 km) can receive $215.40 at a rate of 20 cents per km. Air travel subsidies for Old Crow residents will not exceed $200 per person.

Applications will be accepted at Sport Yukon until Feb. 4, and will be paid by March 4.

"It's a fantastic event, and how often is this going to happen, so there's quite a few families talking about traveling down to take part, we're just waiting to find out what exactly it is that the minor hockey portion will be,” Blanchard said.

LOC vice-chair George Arcand said young players will get the opportunity to skate with NHL alumni during clinics, as well as play in a school hockey tournament, which he projects will attract some 15 teams.

"The kids in Whitehorse have an opportunity to come and skate with the alumni and go to clinics and do all those kinds of things – we'd like that opportunity for the community kids too,” Arcand said.

The Government of Yukon, through the Community Development Fund, allotted $50,000 for the travel subsidy, he noted.

"It's a lot. At the beginning, it makes you wonder if you'll ever spend that much, but I suspect we will … a ton of kids are coming,” he said.

"I don't think this is just a Whitehorse show. Yes, Whitehorse is the primary host and the primary location … but this is a Yukon project.”

Arcand added that the subsidy shows a willingness to include the entire territory.

"Within our structure, that doesn't happen all the time; sometimes communities get left out,” he said. "We want to see those kids bringing their skates in here and skating with Wendel Clark and Brad May and people like that.”

A detailed outline of the travel subsidy can be found at www.hockeyday2011.ca.