Mayor disappointed about cancellation of women’s hockey championships

By Victoria Walton

On Saturday, the International Ice Hockey Federation Announced that the 2020 Women's World Hockey Championships would be cancelled.

The tournament was set to take place in Halifax and Truro beginning March 31.

“It's very disappointing but I think very understandable under the current environment and public health comes first,” Savage tells NEWS 95.7.

The HRM Mayor says he wasn't directly involved in the decision, but he found out yesterday before the news was released to the public.

“To the organizers, the fans, it's disappointing but I don't think there was any other decision that could be made,” Savage says.

Over the past year-and-a-half, the Mayor says the team behind the tournament has put a lot of work into organizing it.

“The city was really pumped up for it,” he says. “The organizing committee and folks like Carrie Cousins at Events East had done a tremendous amount of work. Hockey Canada, Hockey Nova Scotia, a lot of volunteers put a lot of time into this and it would've been an awesome event.”

Savage says the tournament will return to Halifax next year in 2021, which was also indicated in a release by the IIHF yesterday.

“In this case, I'm just glad that we're going to have a chance, it looks like, to do the hockey tournament next year and we'll do a great job,” he adds.

Although coronavirus hasn't been identified in Nova Scotia yet, the Mayor says lots of preparations are being made in Halifax and around the province.

“I don't think that we've hit the peak of this COVID-19 virus, so everybody has to be particularly careful,” says Savage.

In Halifax, no other major events have been cancelled, but international travel is being discouraged.

“People are being very cautious but so far I don't think a huge amount of things have been cancelled,” he adds. “But I know a lot of organizations including HRM are taking steps to be ready in the case — and the likelihood frankly that we will have cases here.”

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