Hay River, Fort Smith team up for AWG 2018 bid

Hay River and Fort Smith are pairing up again to try and bring the 2018 Arctic Winter Games to the Northwest Territories' South Slave region. 

The town's committee is working to submit a bid package by next October.

Greg Rowe, chair of the bid committee, says the requirements for hosting the games are stringent, but he believes the region has what it takes.

Rowe was co-chair of a committee that worked on a similar bid to host the games in 2008. Those games went to Yellowknife, but Rowe says work done then will help now.

“We certainly feel that we can give the athletes the care and comfort that's required,” Rowe says. “The excitement in the whole region, not just in Hay River but in Fort Smith, Fort Resolution, Kakisa, Providence, KFN ... everybody was onside. We had an amazing team and we look to build on that."

Andrew Cassidy, the mayor of Hay River, says council has been looking at ways to fix up its 40-plus-year-old arena, and this bid could influence the conversation around that.

Fort Smith has also been looking at ways to improve its arena since it was damaged by a fire earlier this year.

Hay River has hosted the games before when the town joined with Pine Point in 1978.

Inuvik is also making a bid for the 2018 games.