Winner of National Championships will continue to represent Canada at their respective World Championships each season.

The following rules will be in place for the 2026 through 2029 championships.

Note: Final qualification standards for 2030 will be determined once the final qualification is announced by World Curling for the 2030 Olympic Games and how it may affect Curling Canada’s National Championships in that season.

Format – 18 teams (unchanged)

·      Team Canada 

·      14 Member Association Champions

·      3 Pre-qualified Teams

Residency (unchanged)

·      Team Canada 

o   Must retain 3 of 4 players from Championship winning team year prior if registered as a 4-player team or 4 of 5 players if registered as a 5-player team.

·      Fourteen (14) Member Association Champions

o   Unchanged.

o   Each team must be made up of 4 of 5 players with birthright or bonafide resident status and may contain one free agent (unchanged).

·      Three (3) Pre-qualified Teams

o   Must retain 3 of 4 players from Championship winning team year prior if registered as a 4-player team or 4 of 5 players if registered as a 5-player team.

o   Can meet residency requirements of Member Association or can be made up of 4 or 5 player that meet the same requirements to play in the Curling Trials process.

Pre-qualified teams’ rules and regulations

The principle followed in 2023 to pre-qualify teams was to provide four teams with the opportunity to train, compete and plan their season to prioritize the National Championships and ultimately representing Canada at the World Championships. That principle remains.

·      Pre-qualified teams will be named, based on the top ranked teams on the Canadian Team Ranking System, from the prior season.

o   For further clarification, this will be the CTRS standings following the completion of the Women’s World Curling Championship for the Tournament of Hearts and the Men’s World Curling Championship for Brier.

o   Teams will be publicly named in May following the season.

·      Pre-qualified teams will not play in their respective provincial / territorial playdowns in the following season (unchanged from 2023 through 2026).

·      The teams must maintain 3 of 4 players if a 4-player registered team or 4 of 5 players if a 5-player registered team from their prior seasons Canadian Team Ranking System lineup that qualified the team in order to keep the berth.

o   Teams will be contacted by the Curling Canada High-Performance Program immediately following the season to confirm their lineup.

o   Teams that do not maintain their qualified lineup will default their qualification.

o   If the team defaults their qualification, the replacement team will be named as the next highest ranked non-qualified team from the Canadian Team Ranking system of the next season following the completion of the Provincial / Territorial Play-downs. 

o   For further clarification, if a team defaults its qualification at any point between the pre-qualifying date and the start of the following seasons National Championships, the replacement team will not be named from the prior year Canadian Team Ranking System; it will revert to the Canadian Team Ranking System in the season of the Championships following the completion of the Provincial / Territorial Play-downs.

Team Canada defaults position

·       If at any point, Team Canada defaults its qualification for the following season’s National Championship, the silver medallists from the previous season’s National Championship will be named Team Canada.

·       Furthermore, if the silver medallists are already named to the National Championships as a pre-qualified entry, or should they default through ineligibility, then their qualification spot will default to the next highest ranked non-qualified team from the Canadian Team Ranking system in the year of the Championships following the completely of the Provincial / Territorial Play-downs.

Health Status Note:

·      If, following a health assessment conducted by Curling Canada’s assigned Chief Medical Officer, an athlete is deemed to be injured or ill by the Executive Director of High-Performance that team will be permitted to replace the athlete without losing their awarded berth if they no longer meet the three of four or four of five requirement. 

·      Note that Curling Canada policy for Pregnancy, Parenting and Childbirth replacements as updated in 2024 will remain.