For the first time, the event was to be expanded to include entries from Nunavut, which has never participated in the Scotties, and Northern Ontario, which will now have a berth separate from (Southern) Ontario, as well as separate entries from the Yukon and Northwest Territories, which have historically competed as a single entry. The Nunavut Curling Association decided they were not ready to send teams to either the Scotties or the Brier, so will be sitting out this year's events.
Starting with the 2015 tournament, the top eleven teams will automatically qualify to the main tournament, which will be a competition between twelve teams, as in years past. The remaining teams will play in a pre-qualifying tournament to determine the twelfth team to play in the main tournament.[2]
At the end of the tournament, the last place team will join the two teams who do not qualify via the pre-qualifiers (as well as possibly Nunavut) in next year's pre-qualifying tournament.[2]
Similar changes were also implemented for the 2015 Tim Hortons Brier, meaning that for the first time the Canadian men's and women's curling championships will be conducted using identical formats. Previous versions of the Tim Hortons Brier differed from the Tournament of Hearts in that they included the entry from Northern Ontario but did not include a Team Canada entry.
Teams
After winning the 2013 & 2014 Scotties, Rachel Homan returns again as skip of Team Canada, this time with a new teammate in Joanne Courtney at second. She replaces Alison Kreviazuk who moved to Sweden to be with her partner, Fredrik Lindberg. Courtney played in the 2014 Scotties for Alberta's Val Sweeting rink who returns with a new third in Lori Olson-Johns. They were the silver medalists last year after having lost to Homan in the final. After missing the Scotties last year for the Olympics, where she received a gold medal, Jennifer Jones and her team from Manitoba look to capture her fifth Scotties title. The other favourite is Team Stefanie Lawton, representing Saskatchewan. Although they have never won the Scotties, they have placed 4th four times in previous Scotties tournaments. They are also three-time Canada Cup winners, four-time Grand Slam winners, and are playing on home ice in Saskatchewan.
Northern Ontario, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories will play a single round-robin at Mosaic Place, with the teams with the two best records advancing to the play-in game, which will be contested Saturday, February 14, concurrent with the opening draw of the Scotties round-robin.
