Cold Lake, M.D. support Bantam A Provincials

Cold Lake and M.D. of Bonnyville councils both will support Cold Lake Minor Hockey’s Bantam A Provincials in March.

The City of Cold Lake will give $5000 and the M.D. will exceed their usual donation amount and give $4000 for the upcoming provincial hockey tournament in a couple weeks .

Mayor Craig Copeland said hosting these types of events is important for local businesses and the community.

“That’s a big economic driver for our community. We came in as a big sponsor for that one. I’m sure they will be pretty happy with the dollar amount council came up with,” said Mayor Craig Copeland.

The tournament will happen in Cold Lake from March 14-17.

M.D. Reeve Greg Sawchuk said supporting provincial sports tournaments is attractive for the region.

“We came up with $4000 to help them with the tournament. Any time you can get a provincial tournament in your area it’s great to support,” said Sawchuk.

“It brings people to the area, it fills the hotels, gets the restaurants some business. Sport is one of the things council is definitely in favour of and we look forward to getting out there and seeing some games.”

The M.D. is revisiting their donation policy for provincial tournaments to reflect the growing costs to host.

“We’re actually going to bring that back as a new policy to discuss and just revisit it. Maybe we need to change the amounts there,” said Sawchuk.

Cold Lake Minor Hockey had presented to the city of cold lake council in late January saying that sponsorship money was hard to find.

The Energy Centre will play host to a 10-team tournament over a three-day stretch. There will also be the tournament’s opening ceremonies and team banquets.