Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 26th, 2013

[The Chair (Mr. Gordon Brown (Leeds—Grenville, CPC)), Conservative, Gord Brown]

Good morning, everyone.

We'll call to order meeting number five of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. We're doing a study on Canada's preparations for the 2014 Sochi Olympics and for the Paralympics, also to be held in Sochi.

Today we have three witnesses who are going to present to us for eight minutes each.

We will start with Mr. Lindsay from Biathlon Canada, for eight minutes.

[Christopher Lindsay, Director, High Performance, Biathlon Canada]

Chairman and honourable members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity this morning.

A biathlon is a sport that receives very little attention in Canada. Elsewhere in the world biathlon is a major spectacle that fills cold stadiums with 30,000 plus animated spectators. Once every four years Canadians get an opportunity to see our national team perform. This provides a vital but limited window upon a dedicated group of athletes who are focused 24-7, 365 days of the year on performing a perfect race.

Biathlon is all about the relentless pursuit of perfection. An athlete can ski the fastest but miss their last target and lose the race. The very next day the same athlete can shoot perfectly, but not ski fast enough to win. Even leaving with a medal around your neck is no guarantee that a performance was truly perfect. Biathletes obsess about how to get closer to this mission.

I'll provide a few quick facts about Biathlon Canada. We are the second-smallest winter Olympic sport organization in this country. Our participant base is made up of both civilian and cadet biathlon. Many young Canadians are exposed to low-level biathlon through the cadet program, but the transition from participation-based cadet biathlon to competition-based civilian is challenging due to the limited resources of many cadet families. Ultimately the majority of our national team come from a start in cross-country skiing. There are more than 50 biathlon clubs across the country and many of these clubs are integrated or partnered with larger cross-country ski clubs.

International biathlon is serious business. It is ranked as one of the most popular winter sports in Europe by TV audiences, magazines, fan clubs, trading cards, live broadcasts, and intense media scrutiny.

Biathlon has 27 medals available at Sochi. When biathlon and cross-country medals are counted together, they account for 40% of the total medals available. In Vancouver, Canada won none of these medals despite coming quite close. Canadians have had success in biathlon in the past. Myriam Bédard was a world champion and three-time Olympic medal winner with a bronze in Albertville and two golds in Lillehammer. Unfortunately, Biathlon Canada was unable to capitalize on or repeat this success.

In Vancouver we finished the games with a top-six result. We want to improve on this for Sochi. This season Biathlon Canada has two distinct goals. The first is to put an athlete on the podium. The second is to try to prepare the next generation of athletes for future success. Today I will speak specifically about our Sochi preparations. Our goals for Sochi are simple. We are doing everything we can to put an athlete on the podium. Achieving secondary goals will validate increased program strength, but will not contribute to the overall Team Canada performance at the Olympics. With our performance partners we have targeted support for our athletes. This strategy involved identifying a group of potential athletes eight to twelve years in advance, and each year challenging them to become faster, more accurate, and more dedicated.

Biathlon Canada is heavily dependent on governmental support. This has meant that our plans have been adjusted as our performance partners target resources according to their unique and sometimes uncoordinated efforts. In the pre-Olympic season we won our first World Cup gold medal in 20 years, and collectively our team had its best-ever world championship performance.

To improve our athletes we focused on several strategic programs and methods. In preparation for the 2010 Olympics we shared a special treadmill with Speed Skating Canada. This meant driving an hour to the Olympic Oval for training in Calgary, and then driving another hour back to our training centre in Canmore. Thanks to the investment from OTP and WinSport, we have a new ski treadmill in Canmore for our use.

OTP has supported the development of our biathlon shooting lab, which uses pressure sensors and motion sensors to help improve our shooting accuracy.

We use a walk-in refrigerator, where we are able to simulate extreme weather conditions while doing ammunition testing. This is actually done at a decommissioned tunnel that was built for the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games.

We expose our athletes to altitude training at specific times during the training cycle, to improve their cardiovascular performance. WinSport Canada has provided access to the Beckie Scott high-altitude training centre on the Haig Glacier.

Training at an altitude of 2,700 metres is only an hour’s drive and a 10-minute helicopter ride away from Canmore. Unfortunately, we can't shoot during our multiple three- to four-day stays on the glacier, so for more comprehensive training, we went back to Park City, Utah, and to Dachstein, Austria, for sustained altitude and high-low-high-low training.

To assist our national team staff, we invited several world-class coaches and researchers to our national training centre, for insight into strength, recovery, technique, and shooting. OTP and the Canadian Sport Institute, Calgary, supported this initiative to help us build our own pool of Nordic experts that will be a key factor in sustained success, post-games.

Our preparation has been focused on optimizing performance. We believe we have maximized what we can with the resources provided, but it has not been perfect. We have several challenges, heading into the games. The gradual reduction in our high-performance money has led to dropping support programs and increasing costs to our athletes. Having no funds directly targeting the next generation of athletes will be a major hurdle for us going forward.

One side effect of Canada's funding system is that Nordic sports are disadvantaged in the current funding formulas. The one-size-fits-all standard prioritizes for winter sports but it does not control for Nordic sports' larger field sizes, opportunities for multiple medals by the same athletes, and the greater developmental time required to produce medal winners.

In spite of the challenges, we are very proud of the success we have had. Last season, Jean-Philippe Le Guellec won Canada's first World Cup gold medal. It was our first medal since 2007 and our first gold medal since 1994.

We have several advantages going into the games. Our focused use of technology has improved our ability to provide feedback and analysis, without creating additional work for our staff. Thanks to a comprehensive athlete tracking system, we know more about our Canadian athletes and more about how they compare to the world's best. As well, the elevation of Sochi is nearly identical to that of our Canmore national training centre. This will reduce the time needed for our athletes to acclimatize. With our extensive research into snow conditions, pre-Vancouver, we are world leaders in dealing with near-zero temperatures and heavy and unexpected snowfall, which we expect at the games.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Mr. Lindsay, I'm going to have to put an end to your presentation now, but you will have an opportunity to expand on it in the questioning.

We'll move now, for eight minutes, to Steven Hills, the executive director of the Canada Snowboard Federation.

Mr. Hills, go ahead.

[Steven Hills, Executive Director, Canada Snowboard Federation]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you.

I appreciate the opportunity to come here today to speak to you about our preparation for Sochi. Canada Snowboard, I'm proud to say, does enjoy a lot of attention in Canada, and in the media, and in the action sports world.

We are the governing body for the sport of snowboarding in Canada. Our mission is to lead snowboarding from park to podium. That word “park” refers to the snow parks that exist at the resorts where young athletes, young kids, begin their long-term athletic development pathway, learning to snowboard and getting excited about being on the hill.

Our vision is for Canada to be recognized as the world-leading snowboard nation. I believe we've effectively achieved that. We consistently win the most medals on the FIS Snowboard World Cup as well as the World Snowboard Tour. Last year we won an aggregate of 54 medals, which placed us in the top rank when you aggregate the pro and traditional tour models. But we're also recognized for our world-leading sport development programs. That's our training for coaches, judges, officials, and it's shared and copied around the world, which is a point of pride for us. We also host and deliver some of the best World Cup competitions, as many as any other nation does.

All of that is thanks to the federal government. Our largest single funder is the federal government, and I thank all of you for supporting that.

We're also very fortunate to have a number of performance partners. We are grateful to Sport Canada for their investment through the OTP recommendations. We also were assisted by the international single sport hosting program, which is supported by the government to allow us to hold World Cups where our young athletes can get World Cup experience at home in Canada.

OTP, the Canadian Olympic Committee, and the Canadian Sport Institute are critical to our overall preparation for major games and our athletes in general. There are other valuable groups like B2ten. You will hear JD Miller speak about some of the efforts they are supporting in national sports.

Our corporate partners are an important part of this. Unfortunately, after the 2010 games, sponsor fatigue caused a reduction in funding directly to NSOs. This is a critical problem. The resources from those corporate partners are the resources we rely on to invest in the next generation of athletes. This is a problem we really need to work on.

We want to thank the provincial governments for their matching support for the international hosting program.

How did Canada Snowboard get to 2014? It's been a long way since Nagano in 1998. We won our first gold medal there. Many of you may remember those games and the controversy surrounding that gold medal.

At the Salt Lake games and the Torino games, we had tremendous success. We came close to the podium, winning one medal in Torino in 2006, a proud medal. But our success really came together with the investment leading to Vancouver, and that came through the creation of OTP and the increased funding from the federal government. We were always a great group of snowboarders on the world stage, but through OTP and that investment we became a great group of athletes supported by some of the best coaches in the world.

In 2010, we won three medals: two gold, one silver. It put us second to the U.S. In 2010 there were three medal events. In 2014 there are five medal events in snowboarding, with 30 medal opportunities. Our goal for Sochi is to win five medals. That's a big goal, and we're very confident we can do it.

Snowboarding will also be making its debut in the 2014 Paralympics for the first time. We have an athlete, a former world champion, on our roster. He competed in the 2010 games as a para-Nordic athlete. He has a shot at it, but in the 2014 games there's no factoring—they won't be factoring the level of disability of the athlete. So it will be difficult, but we have a shot.

So how are we prepared, and what is the evidence we can meet our medal goals? In fact, we're well on our way to qualify our full quota of 24 athletes for the games, and we could qualify as many as 26 athletes, which means we might end up leaving a couple of athletes behind. Twenty-four athletes represents 11% of the entire Canadian team so there is going to be a large group of snowboarders at the games, with 10 coaches and 15 medical and technical support staff. It's no small mission to put together.

Last year was a record year for our medal count. One of the major indicators for success at the games is performance at the world championships.

We were fortunate enough, with the support of the federal government and the Quebec governments, to host the world championships here in Canada. It's about a five-year process to bring the world championships to any nation. We tied for first place with Finland, at four medals. Although we only won four medals at those games, we also won two at the X Games. The X Games is a big pro event and it's almost considered a higher level of competition.

We currently have six top-five athletes, including two world champions and one X Games champion, going into the games, and I believe our team is as well prepared as we possibly can be.

Through your investment, our summer dryland and non-snow training camp program was the most comprehensive it's ever been. I've only been around as executive director since 2010, but spent 10 years working alongside Snowboard before that, so I can attest to the preparation of the dryland program this summer.

The entire team is free of injury, and fitness testing has proven that as a group our team is the fittest it has ever been. Your investment has allowed us to build replica courses that we'll be using in Sochi. We're fortunate that the builders who built the Vancouver courses, and are building the Sochi courses, are Canadians. They're good friends of ours, and they build us training courses and practice courses around the world on glaciers. That's not by accident.

We're also fortunate the top judges in the world are Canadians. It doesn't mean we have any ability to influence the judging, but we certainly have access to their expertise and their knowledge of the systems. That's also not by accident.

Your investment will allow us to host three Olympic and two Paralympic World Cup events here in Canada, leading to the games. The world's best will be in Lake Louise, Alberta, in late December, and in Quebec City in January, after which we'll announce our team formally.

The last piece of our preparation is familiarization. I can't say enough about this. The Canadian Olympic Committee, through their support and your investment, has allowed us to be on the ground in Sochi with our snow sport peers figuring out that very challenging environment, and I assure you it is a very challenging environment. I'm very confident that the level of preparation on the ground in Sochi that the Canadian Olympic Committee has will rival any nation in the world.

Your investments also allowed us to become recognized as one of the best organized snowboard nations in the world. We spend a lot of time with our peers at the International Ski Federation meetings, and we compare notes. And we're often compared to the Swiss. I don't mind that comparison.

In closing, to be at my eight minutes here, I want to thank you again, the federal government, for your help in our preparation. I remind you of one thing. Not only will our athletes stepping on the podium be a great source of pride, but this is an important economic driver. The ski and snowboard resort business in Canada is significant, and having a whole new generation of champions and role models, excitement and enthusiasm after the games, I hope and expect, will continue to drive people to the hills to enjoy what I enjoy, playing in the snow.

Thank you very much for your time today, and I look forward to your questions a little later.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Great job.

Thank you very much, Mr. Hills.

We'll now move to JD Miller, president of B2ten, for eight minutes.

[JD Miller, President, B2ten]

Bonjour. Good morning. Zdrastvuyte.

Thank you for the opportunity of being invited to appear here today.

I sit before you as a private citizen who believes in the positive impact of sport on society. For those not familiar with B2ten, we were formed out of necessity some 10 years ago to provide athletes a best-case scenario for success. Today, B2ten continues the aforementioned activities and invests in the development of professionals in key areas where insufficient availability exists. These programs are privately funded, making B2ten the largest funder of high-performance sport that is independent of the sports system.

Our independence gives us a unique outlook on the sports system, free from political limitations, restrictions or bureaucracy.

Our endeavours are wide-ranging, from filling specific gaps to delivering fully integrated programs tailored to the physical, mental, technical and strategic needs of athletes.

Why do individuals across the country activate putting up tens of millions of dollars with no commercial quid pro quo? They do so because of their conviction that sport and sport achievement are an integral part of a healthy, dynamic society.

This morning, I will briefly speak to the following elements: athletes and their preparedness for Sochi, funding, expectations for Sochi and next steps.

Over the past 20 years I've had the opportunity to know many Olympians. To this day, I never cease to be amazed by their passion, drive, determination for excellence, and pride in country.

I would have a hard time coming up with any other activity in which you strive to become the best in the world and where pride in your achievement is considered reward enough.

Every athlete's story is unique. Each one is worthy of recognition, and every Olympic medal is priceless.

As you know, our Olympic athletes work incredibly hard. Yet hard work alone is not enough. One needs to work smart, using the latest in technology, tools, and training methods to push performance envelopes. It is this element of constantly pushing up against the limits of what is impossible that makes high performance so very expensive.

For the current winter quadrennial we are of the view that preparedness has moved a step forward under the guidance of Own the Podium.

Canada's national sport organizations have generally improved their delivery of training and preparation programs.

Logistics and organization are critical components when it comes to putting on the games, especially far from home, as with Sochi. With that in mind, Canada's Olympic committee deserves to be recognized for the unprecedented amount of resources it has committed to ensure Team Canada is well-supported.

Turning to finances, how easy it would have been to scale back funding post-Vancouver. The Government of Canada did not do so and should be congratulated for having stayed the course. A stable source of long-term funding is required to succeed in the high-performance arena.

While it is incumbent on our sport organizations to pursue further enhancements and efficiencies such that government investment can be used to the highest level, there remain a number of areas in which obtaining results is fundamentally financially constrained. A few examples would be talent ID, individualized training programs such as those being pursued in the U.S., attracting the world's best professionals, and an expedited move to gold-standard governance.

If we want to remain a leading medal contender in winter sports, Canadian society must play a bigger role. In particular, that includes additional funding for sports organizations to put towards athlete training and preparation. At B2ten, we are looking to extend our reach to the 2018 and 2020 Olympic games and to step up our efforts to engage other groups directly in sports.

Going forward, Canada will require greater activation and funding on the part of provincial governments. Without doing so, over time we can expect to see a lesser number of athletes and a lesser quality of athletes ascending to the international competition scene.

As to Sochi results for able-bodied athletes, we expect there to be a good deal to celebrate. When comparing events to 2010, using performance analytics, one can expect to see a similar medal total. One then needs to add in the new events that will be debuting in Sochi. Canada is expected to do well in these new events given its history as an effective early adopter--think short track, think aerials--and as mentioned by Steven, some of the new events emanate from the X Games culture in which Canadians have been actively involved for many years.

With these new events, Canada is expected to deliver a record number of medals. On the subject of gold medals, a decline is expected. As to finishing first in the overall standings, we do not see this result.

While there will be much to celebrate in Sochi, immediately around the corner lies a period of challenge. As such, we must not be complacent.

If Canada's goal is to improve or even maintain its current standing, stakeholders will have to act swiftly. To that end, some fundamental questions will need to be answered: which sports matter to Canadians, what Canada's objectives are and how success should be measured.

Only once this is done will stakeholders be able act with common purpose, something that is central to becoming our best. For the near term, this is a time of anticipation and excitement. Let us get out and cheer loudly for Canada come February. Let us also be aware that it is the time for stakeholders to address the future.

Thank you very much for your time.

I look forward to answering any questions that might come this way.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you, Mr. Miller.

We're now going to move to questioning. This round has seven minutes to each questioner.

We will start with Mr. Hillyer, for seven minutes.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

Mr. Miller, your organization is a charitable organization, but even though it's a charitable organization, your website says that you apply business-based principles to athlete development.

Can you just expand on that and maybe talk about whether or not those principles are applied just to companies and businesses who donate to your organization, or if they also apply to the athletes themselves?

[JD Miller]

No. Everything that B2ten has done is athlete-centred, Mr. Hillyer, and as such, we apply these principles in order to give athletes a best-case scenario for success.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Can you talk a little bit about a business principle that's involved in an amateur athlete preparing for the Olympics?

[JD Miller]

Certainly. Everything would start with purpose. So in other words, decisions are made based on the purpose. What is the purpose for this particular athlete and their program? If what is being done fits with the purpose, or what is being proposed fits with the purpose, we will do it. If not, we will cast it aside.

So this is a very businesslike approach: how to achieve a goal, what are the needs, what is missing, and then how to provide what is missing in a very sharp and pointed fashion in order that each athlete can be supported in order to reach their own personal service ceiling of performance.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

You talked about the main motivation for donors to your organization as the understanding that excellence in sport is vital for our society and for our country. But is there a business model that has a more tangible financial return for companies that might want to get involved in helping athletes?

[JD Miller]

I think that anybody who wishes to get involved with sport, which is part of health, or the environment or even education—three great needs—needs to be cognizant that this has to be a bit of a cocktail, which can be one part commercial and one part community service. I think if one enters the realm of providing a sponsorship agreement, as corporate Canada might to biathlon or to snowboard, to do so strictly for commercial reasons, it would be difficult to get a return on investment.

I think we all have a profound obligation to contribute to community, and this is what drives the members of B2ten to put up substantial amounts of money to help Canada succeed.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

You talked about the importance for governments to continue to invest in developing athletes if we want to continue to have success in future Olympics. But what are some ways beyond just dollars that governments can help?

[JD Miller]

It's very difficult for governments to provide resources without one of those critical resources being fuel, especially in the area of high performance. This is the most expensive area that exists in sport, probably akin to Formula One racing, where everybody is pushing against the limits of what is possible, and it's not merely a matter of providing funding, it's increasing funding.

If you're not increasing funding, you're falling behind the trailing edge. Governments obviously do have other things to operate, in terms of expertise and resources, whether it's the NRC or their legal department. As I mentioned, we view governance as the number one issue facing the sport system, and certainly there's a great number of lawyers in the Government of Canada and expertise available to upgrade the governance. There has to be a will to do so, however.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

Mr. Lindsay, biathlon.... I ski and I see that we don't have any trouble attracting people to snowboarding. I know there's probably not too much trouble getting people to cross-country ski. How big is biathlon itself, for people who don't want to do it competitively, just do it for fun?

[Christopher Lindsay]

Biathlon is an interesting situation, because it really only exists in a competitive arena at this point.

We have participatory programs at the low end, both through cadets and on the civilian side, whereby we are providing challenges beyond cross-country skiing that are effective for some populations of kids who are looking for something a little different.

Of course, we are dealing with a sport in which at some level you end up dealing with firearms, so you are already limiting yourself a little bit in your population because of both regulation and the general feeling around firearms in specific areas of the country and within specific demographic groups.

We're trying to push, on the technological side, towards using some of the technology we've developed in our shooting lab for testing high-performance athletes to bring the technology back down to the point at which we could provide biathlon as a sport for people without the stigma attached to firearms, using such things as what I'll call laser rifles in almost a laser-tag type of situation, because that's the type of technology people can understand, and bringing it down to the point of being able to reinforce participation starting right at eight years of age, with kids who are interested in a challenge other than just doing loops around the park.

We see this as a potential benefit, but we don't foresee in the next 10 years any change at the international level.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much. We'll have to move to—

[Christopher Lindsay]

I'm doing really well with my time today, am I not?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Mr. Dubé, you have seven minutes.

[Matthew Dubé, NDP, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is for Mr. Lindsay.

We have some concerns.

You talked about the limited resources for families transitioning from the cadet program to the civilian program. Actually, you didn't say a lot about it, and I'd like to know more.

A lot of funding goes to elite athletes, but consideration must also be given to the performance level they started at before reaching the elite mark.

Is that a problem, in your view? Basically, I'm singling out a sentence in your presentation. Perhaps you could elaborate on the subject.

[Christopher Lindsay]

The cadet program, which is run by the military, is a huge source of exposure to biathlon. Cadet units across the country have the opportunity to do biathlon as one of their optional fitness activities each year.

The cadet program is not terribly good at telling us how many people are exposed to biathlon, but looking at average cadet numbers from each of the land force areas, we estimate the number at between 3,500 to 4,000 young athletes who have exposure.

Unfortunately, the population who are involved in cadets tends to be from a lower income demographic. One of the challenges we have in biathlon is that as soon as you look to move outside of the cadet program, in which everything is provided directly to you—skis, boots, poles, and the rifle—and move into the civilian side, you need to provide all this equipment for yourself. That can be a very steep initial upgrade for people. Unfortunately it's not like triathlon, in which, if you want to do a triathlon, you can start out on your BMX bike and still participate.

The reality in biathlon currently is that we don't have distinct levels of technology that can get you up to using Olympic-calibre equipment. An athlete at age 16 anywhere in the world will go immediately to the very same rifle system that is being used by the top people who compete. That means a $4,000 investment. Of course, we need to be careful with such things as clubs owning rifles or getting grants to own rifles, because then you have an issue with who is in actual control of the rifle. This is generally an area that we just don't want to get into.

This is why I think that using some of the technology we have been able to put together in the shooting lab and finding ways to bring costs down so as to be able to put together a $500 biathlon system would be a major boon for us.

[Matthew Dubé, NDP, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

My other question has to do with development.

You talked about the hierarchical nature of funding for winter sports. This question is along the same lines as my first. We're concerned that we're allocating funds to a certain level of performance but perhaps disregarding lower levels. The system may not give enough consideration to sports that require more time to develop future medallists. Could you elaborate a bit on that?

[Christopher Lindsay]

The funding models in Canada are based primarily on two things: there is general participation across the country, and there is high-performance success. In sports such as ours, which are focused primarily on competition at the high end, we inevitably have fewer people who compete, compared with other sports. Everyone compares with hockey; none of our sports will ever become hockey.

The challenge I suggested in my presentation about the discrepancies among our funding partners is that often, in order to gain more results, we need to train more athletes and be able to reach out our identification of talent deeper into the Canadian population.

Unfortunately, as a sport that hasn't been able to crack into the medals regularly at the Olympics, certainly not for the last 20 years, we are not able to access any money to do that, and so the system tends to revolve around people who are performing and will then continue to put money into those sports to the detriment of other sports.

I have some sympathy for sports that are doing well. They should continue getting funding. I totally agree with that. However, when I look at the overall mission, particularly the mission of OTP, which is to try to win medals, if we're leaving 40% of the medals at the Winter Olympic Games off the table because we are not adequately funding those sports and are not making the long-term investments required for real progress, we will eventually get to a position in which we have a Canadian on every single podium but will still not have access to that 40% of the medals.

If that's what we are looking to do, then that's great. If it's not, then....

[Matthew Dubé, NDP, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Finally, I have a quick question for Mr. Hills.

You talked about going from the park to the podium. Do you have enough support at the park level to develop future Olympians?