Canada Games Technical Review Committee Coming to Greater Sudbury 

Aug 16, 2016

Officials from the Canada Games Council will be in Sudbury on Friday, August 26 to evaluate the technical elements associated with the City’s bid for the 2021 Summer Games. They will be touring venues and reviewing proposals for the sporting facilities that Greater Sudbury would need should our city win the bid to host the Games. The visit by the Games Council’s Technical Review Committee is part of the bid evaluation process, and involves a detailed review of existing and proposed venues for each of the 20 sports included in the two-week event. 

Earlier this year, Greater Sudbury Council approved a Letter of Intent to Bid to host the Games; the $20,000 bid to the Canada Games Council was funded by the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation as a show of support and encouragement for this opportunity.

“This is the largest bid opportunity that our community has ever pursued, and the event has the potential to increase our impact on the national and international stages,” said Mayor Brian Bigger. “We have the partnerships, the community spirit, and a willingness to invest in our infrastructure to make Greater Sudbury a real contender in this process. I want to thank Council and staff for their foresight and acumen in moving this bid forward.” 

It is anticipated that hosting the Games would leverage significant benefits for the community, including new and improved facilities, a potential economic impact of $165 million, increased visibility for Greater Sudbury on the national stage, enhanced community pride, and increased capacity for hosting major sports events.

Residents are invited to get involved in the visit to show the Canada Games Council that the community supports the 2021 Summer Games bid.

“We’d like residents to come out to the Northern Water Sports Centre on Friday, August 26 at 6:45 p.m. to show the Technical Review Committee just how excited we are to host the Games here in Sudbury,” said Meredith Armstrong, Manager of Tourism for the City of Greater Sudbury. “Where we are going to be competitive in this round is showing that our community has heart, and that we have spirit.  We want to see lots of locals coming out, cheering and showing excitement when this Committee comes to town.”

Greater Sudbury is one of four bidding communities along with Niagara, Ottawa and a joint bid from Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph and Cambridge. The Games Council will announce on September 9 which cities have been shortlisted to move on to the next phase with a final announcement expected in spring 2017 from the Games Council as to the successful host community.

The Canada Games were created in 1967 in order to unite the country in a celebration of sport and culture; the event has since grown to be the largest single sporting event in Canada, with a lasting legacy for host communities as well as significant economic impacts. As the Canada Games Council has expressed it, these events are "national events held on a regional level", acting as a catalyst for the growth of sport and recreation across the country.

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