Brandon's bid to host 2017 Canada Games rejected

The western Manitoba city of Brandon won't be hosting the 2017 Canada Summer Games, with city officialsdisappointed the event will be held in Winnipeg instead.

Officials with Brandon's 2017 Canada Summer Games Bid Committee said they have learned from the province that the Canada Games Council has rejected its bid.

"We put a lot of effort and passion into our bid," Mayor Shari Decter Hirst told CBC News on Thursday.

"It's a sad day because we're not going to see the 2017 games here in Brandon."

Last year, the Canada Games Council opened a 15-month bidding process for Manitoba communities that want to host the 2017 summer games.

The rejection comes even thoughBrandon was the sole bidderfor the national sporting competition, which brings together young athletes from across the country.

The province will instead work with Winnipeg and nearby communities to host the games, "despite the fact that the City of Winnipeg did not officially submit a bid to host the games during the bid process," the bid committee said in a release.

"It is extremely disheartening to learn that the CGC could not share our vision for what the Games could be in Brandon and the Western Manitoba area," Brandon bid committee chairman Jeff Cristall said in the release.

"The move away from the smaller markets to the large urban centres is an unfortunate consequence of the growth in the scale and scope of the Games," he added.

Decter Hirst said the Canada Games Council was particularly concerned that the city did not have an indoor eight-lane, 50-metre swimming pool.

"City council was not prepared to incur the costs of constructing a new indoor aquatic centre and had hoped that the option of an outdoor facility that would eventually be converted into a water park would meet standards. This option was rejected by the CGC," she said in the release.