Four provinces have expressed interest in sharing hosting duties for the 2030 Commonwealth Games if the event is awarded to Canada.
Manitoba, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island have told the Canadian governing body for the Commonwealth Games that they are interested in jointly bidding for the Games. Other countries may also put forward bids.
Potential hosts within Canada had until March 31 to submit their interest, along with the sports they want to host, to Commonwealth Sport Canada.
The federal government and the Ontario regional chief for the Chiefs of Ontario are also supportive of the four provinces’ bid.
Brian MacPherson, CEO of Commonwealth Sport Canada, said his organization will now work with the governments to explore the feasibility of a multi-province bid.
“We’re quite hopeful that together, we’ll be able to co-create an actual bid that’ll be submitted to our international federation by Aug. 31,” he said.
The Commonwealth Games are a quadrennial multi-sport festival featuring 74 countries that Canada hasn’t hosted since 1994, when the Games were in Victoria.
Hamilton attempted to stage a bid for the 2030 Games, which would mark 100 years since the Ontario city held the first iteration of the Games in 1930, but the Ontario government didn’t support it.
Alberta’s government wouldn’t support Calgary’s bid for 2030 because the costs were too high, the provincial government said in 2023.
And Victoria tried to bid for the 2026 games, but that plan was shot down by the B.C. government.
Over the years, the price tag for hosting the Commonwealth Games has skyrocketed to around $1 billion, MacPherson said, which made asking one city and one province to shoulder the largest share of the costs impractical.
The international federation has responded by permitting hosts to drastically reduce the number of sports and athletes to make the event more affordable.
MacPherson said that appeals to Canada, which wants to share the reduced costs of a scaled-down event across multiple provinces. It is also prioritizing the use of existing sporting venues, rather than funding new capital projects.
“We’re looking forward to having a united Canada Games,” he said.
Manitoba last hosted a large-scale multi-sport event of a similar magnitude in 1999, when Winnipeg hosted the Pan Am Games.
The Manitoba, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island governments haven’t immediately responded to a request for comment.
