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The tournament begins on Boxing Day 2018.

“We are working on getting the information together and support required,” MacDonald said.

“This is a great opportunity for us and we are excited by it. We are even pushing for Victoria to host the Canadian team pre-tournament training camp.”

But all this won’t come cheap, even if the rewards could be great.

MacDonald said he expects Hockey Canada will want a guarantee “of between $5 million to $10 million” to host the event.

The money would be Hockey Canada’s share of revenue from such things as tickets, broadcast rights and merchandise.

Cam Hope, general manager of the Victoria Royals of the Western Hockey League, said it’s an opportunity worth pursuing.

“Victoria is the perfect community for something like this,” Hope said.

“Vancouver needed a secondary site and asked us to join in the bid, and we expressed interest.”

The 2017 world junior hockey championship, hosted by Montreal and Toronto, begins Dec. 26. The 2018 tournament is in Buffalo, New York.

Meanwhile, Vancouver Giants owner Ron Toigo says that his group is “ready again,” to spearhead the bid after leading the way in Vancouver, Kelowna and Kamloops in hosting the 2006 tournament.

“I like our chances. I think we did a good job last time and I think we’re capable of raising the bar this time.”

Toigo says the Giants are working with the Victoria Royals, B.C. Hockey and the Vancouver Canucks in conjunction for the bid.

Toigo has a solid relationship with Royals owner Graham Lee, “unless we’re are playing them,” Toigo joked. Lee owns Victoria’s home rink, Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. He also owns Prospera Place in Kelowna, which was one of the rinks that hosted games in 2006.

Toigo believes a joint bid from Edmonton/Calgary, along with bids from London, Ont., and from Winnipeg are also being considered.

He says each group will need to have their presentation ready by Aug. 31, and that Hockey Canada will come visit the four sites and then pick a winner and let the winner know in December.

The Edmonton/Calgary bid would seem to be major competition, due to the new rink in Edmonton and the presence of Bob Nicholson, the longtime Hockey Canada exec who joined the Oilers front office in 2014.

— with files from Steve Ewen, The Province