Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 21st, 2013

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Wild Rose, AB]

Thank you. I appreciate that.

I want to make sure I leave a little bit of time, and I don't think I've left much, Mr. Chairman, for Mr. Young. I appreciate those answers.

Mr. Young, I will turn it over to you and I hope there's a little time left for you.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

How much time do I have, Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

You have 40 seconds.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

It's better than nothing.

I'm going to ask one quick question of Mr. Heck, if I may. What are your biggest challenges? We did a study last year on coaching, and at the lower levels of competition we have a shortage of coaches in gymnastics, etc. What are your biggest challenges?

[Barry Heck]

I'd like to defer to my expert here, Dr. Norris.

[Dr. Stephen Norris]

Certainly I think the aspect of coaching and quality coaching through to children and youth is absolutely critical. I do strongly urge you to pay attention to governance of sport in the country. We have to out-punch our weight because of our population size and geographical size at the other extreme, and so those are elements for me, quality people, sound instruction, and strong governance to make sure we do not duplicate services and that we're very efficient.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you, Mr. Young.

We'll now move to a five-minute round.

Ms. Mathyssen, I believe you are splitting your time with Mr. Donnelly.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Yes, and I'll try to share in an equitable way.

Thank you very much for being here. It's encouraging to hear that there's so much preparation in terms of the well-being of our athletes.

My first question is in regard to the balance of programming between men and women. What efforts are being made to make sure that women aren't overshadowed? Of course, we know that when it comes to hockey, women don't allow men to overshadow them at all.

[Dale Henwood]

Maybe I could start by answering that. If you look at our medal performances, the women are outperforming the men, so I'm not sure I need to say any more than that.

In terms of opportunity we try to look at the ability and provide services to those athletes with the ability and potential, but if you look at Canadian performances, summer and winter, our women are outperforming our men.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you.

My second question, very quickly, and Mr. Young alluded to it, is on the development of young athletes. Perhaps those young athletes don't have the financial ability to go to summer camps. How do you find, support, and nurture them?

[Dale Henwood]

First of all, our primary mandate is at the high end. It's absolutely critical that our partners deeper down in the system are working with those young athletes.

The one concern I would have, and I would maybe tag onto a question that was asked earlier, is you can certainly help us by advocating for corporate investment that would help some of those younger kids, who are good kids, who maybe do not have the wherewithal or their parents don't have the wherewithal, to stay involved. There are lot of organizations, KidSport and so on, that do provide some of that support system, but certainly more is needed to get some of those good young kids to help them stay involved, because it does become expensive as you move up the system.

Second, I would say just continue to encourage our provinces. I think municipalities and provinces have a role to play in some of that stuff. Encourage them to keep investing, because from a succession planning standpoint, we need to go deeper down the development system and start working with those athletes at a younger age and prepare them to be future national team athletes, if that's their desire and if they have the ability. Today we don't have a real strong pool of that next generation of athletes. That would be a concern which I think the provinces and the corporate sector could help us with.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Donnelly.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

First of all, thank you to all three of our witnesses for testifying today in front of the committee.

I would like to congratulate you, Mr. Henwood, on your career as an Olympic hockey coach and the work you have done over the years at the Canadian Sport Institute.

I have two quick questions for you, Mr. Henwood. What are you most proud of in terms of your achievements at the institute? What is the one thing you don't have right now that you wish you did have?

[Dale Henwood]

The proudest, I would say, are the people we have been able to invest in, whether that's the athletes or the coaches. I get excited every day when I get to see young committed Canadians who are out there trying to be the best in the world. I'm simply very proud of the impact we have had, we meaning the team of us, the wide variety of people who have contributed over a long period of time. That is what gets me running to work every day. I'm very proud of the young people we have who will represent our country, the young people we have who will be our future leaders. That's the first thing.

In terms of the ongoing challenge today, it's really our capacity. It's our ability to continue to provide the level of support and expertise we need not only for the athletes today but for those athletes who are coming behind. To me that's the bigger challenge going forward.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Do I have 30 seconds?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

You do.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you.

I have one quick question for WinSport then. Is there a province that stands out in terms of where athletes are coming from, or is the representation right across the country based on, say, the population of the provinces?

[Dr. Stephen Norris]

For me, Quebec is a leader without doubt. Ontario is to a certain extent, but considering the population size they don't outperform their population size. They need to improve that. B.C. has done a very, very good job with its grassroots programming. I think areas of the country that have very sound physical education programs in their elementary and junior high schools stand out, unfortunately not Alberta.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much.

We do have a few minutes left so we'll go back to Mr. Young.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I'd like to ask Mr. Henwood a question. I know everything you do helps athletes that are not at the elite level, everything. Watching the Olympics inspires our young people, all kinds of young people. It inspires them to participate in sport. It's good for their health, physical activity.

Can you describe a little bit, though, how the $4.9 million that Canada is investing in 2013-14 in the Canadian Sport Institute benefits other athletes at other levels, either directly or indirectly?

[Dale Henwood]

Our primary focus is to provide that support service for the top-end athletes, but as I mentioned, I think for Sochi we'll only have about 215 athletes from across the country. Not all of them, maybe two-thirds of them, might be from our area of the country in terms of Canadian athletes who have relocated to the Calgary-Canmore area.

We are working deeper down in some sports, not in all the sports. Our ability to go down is dependent on other resources, so we do touch them but we certainly do not touch them to the same extent we would the top athletes.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Okay. I appreciate that, but you use the money for sport science and sport medicine. That benefits all athletes, does it not?

[Dale Henwood]

It does, but the level of support the top athletes get is different from maybe someone who's on a development team or a junior team. They would get a little bit, but certainly not nearly the same quality or quantity.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Your institute helps athletes who reach an elite level, so you don't have any kind of regional representation or anything. It's simply whoever reaches that elite level in their sport. Is that correct?

[Dale Henwood]

Yes. It's actually the national sport federations that would identify the athletes. Again, they do that across the country at any one of our seven institutes. The sport would identify the athletes, and we would provide the services, but we do that on a priority and targeted basis, and it's dependent on the athletes the sports have identified for us.