Canadian Heritage Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2013

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Mr. Wilson.

[Don Wilson]

I would say coaches. Peter referred to athletes, but they need to have the right people putting them forward. The support of the Canadian coaching program is essential.

It needs to be a profession. It needs to be individuals who don't run away to Russia because they can make more money. It's people who stay here, believe in the country, and want to see the next generation go through.

In terms of operations, I know we have two legacy areas. For us it's Calgary and Whistler. We need to ensure that these facilities continue. I don't think we need new ones. I don't expect anybody to build a $150-million bobsleigh track in the east of Canada. We just need the operations and the continuation of the current facilities to be very good.

As a parent of two kids—one's a freestyler—I love the tax credit I get from it, but my child would be in the sport whether I had a tax credit or not. I know that for all of the sports, we want to rely on and we need to rely on government funding, but corporate donations are essential for sport. If the federal government can give strong consideration to how we can have the corporate community come and give us support financially so that we have the 3P opportunity to be able to generate more money inside sport, much like the U.S., I think that would be very useful.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Leung, for seven minutes.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Not being a participant in any of your sports, to me they seem to be fairly high risk. About the only thing I do that is high risk is scuba diving and also a bit of alpine skiing.

I'm sure in Sochi the technical facilities are all there. What I want to know is what happens if an athlete sustains an injury? What is the triage to ensure their safety? If the injury is just a sprain or a minor injury, you can probably treat it on site, but what happens if there's a compound fracture? What happens if there is a spinal cord injury? What is the process to get them out of Sochi to get the best medical attention available?

We'll start with Mr. Judge, please.

[Peter Judge]

As Mr. Wilson discussed earlier, one of the Canadian Olympic Committee's beachhead pieces that they have to deal with is to ensure that athletes have the utmost in medical care and safety. Part of that is to ensure and to verify that what goes on, on the ground, on the venue, is done to what we would consider to be exceptional standards.

The other part of it is making sure that Canadian athletes have the best Canadian help there. They go to great pains to ensure that we have our own doctors, our own physiotherapists, our own medical experts there, to deal not only with traumatic issues but with, as you said, issues that could just affect performance as well.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Would our team doctors have access to Russian hospital facilities?

[Peter Judge]

Within certain parameters, yes, they would. Obviously there are always certain protocols around medical facilities or around evacuation from the hill, let's say. There's certain protocol as to whether or not they can be involved in certain aspects, but I don't think we've ever seen an issue where they have been excluded to the point of not being able to be on the inside of the information circle.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

What contingency plans are in place for evacuation, if necessary?

[Peter Judge]

To be honest, I don't know exactly what those detailed plans are. The Canadian Olympic Committee would have more information on exactly what those detailed plans are.

I know from our own standpoint, though, that when we go in to do our own events as a national sport organization—we had a World Cup there last year, a European Cup the year before—a medical evacuation plan is undertaken by our insurance policy. Athletes can be flown out within a very short period of time, if it's necessary. That option certainly exists.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Mr. Wilson, do you have anything to add to that?

[Don Wilson]

I don't think I could add anything to what Mr. Judge said.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Okay.

What about you, Mr. Lyon? I mean, it seems to me that hurtling 60 to 70 metres through the sky and then landing would be a pretty difficult thing for most human beings.

I guess you don't have anything to add on how you can medically evacuate a person.

[Curtis Lyon]

No. We're very confident in the COC and the preparations they've made. Also, with our insurance through the CSA and the organizations in Canada, we're very confident in the operations over there and the preparations we've made.

Peter explained it very well.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

My next question centres around the unfortunate event in Vancouver where the athlete from Ukraine met with a fatal accident. Who provides the insurance for this type of thing? Is it Sochi? Is it the IOC or the COC that will provide insurance for a fatality or someone being turned into a quadriplegic?

[Peter Judge]

To be honest, I have no idea.

[Don Wilson]

In fairness, obviously, the organizing committee would have a substantial liability program. Each one of the NSOs has substantial liability programs, as does the COC.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Is that the same for ski jumping, Mr. Lyon?

[Curtis Lyon]

Yes, it is the same for ski jumping.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

In many ways, the athletes are then entering these sports at their own risk other than what the organization provides them with in regard to training and medical attention. That small incident of a critical injury is really at their risk. Is that correct?

[Peter Judge]

I'm sorry, I'll qualify what I said before in terms of “I have no idea”. What I meant was I don't know the tumble-down of subjugation. In the insurance world, subjugation is the way things operate.

There's never a single liability. There is always liability of one party against another against another against another. Where that falls in terms of percentages, again, I don't have any idea.

I know at games even at the level of world cups and continental cups there are significant insurance undertakings. Whether you're the organizer of a NorAm mogul event or whether you're running a World Cup bobsleigh event, there are levels and layers of insurance that go through and ensure there is coverage. It is there. I just don't know exactly what the structure and mechanics of that are.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Is it more a commercial insurance body that would look after it, which the COC would purchase or which your particular organization would purchase?

[Peter Judge]

It would be all of those, yes. The national sport organization would have some. The COC would have some. The IOC or the organizing committee would have some.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

This is my last question. Can you share with us how we can attract more corporate sponsorship in this area? I won't say it's a fringe type of sport, but it's certainly not the mainstream as in hockey or as in alpine and cross-country skiing. How do we attract more corporate sponsorship?

[Peter Judge]

That's the pick a number $50-million question.

Own the Podium, in the beginning, in the partnership that it undertook between the Government of Canada, the corporate entity, and VANOC produced something that was significant and quite unique. It is possible to recreate that. We just have to find the way and what that mechanism is. I don't know whether it's creating greater tax credits for companies or what exactly it is we can do to try to stimulate that allure.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you.

We're going to move to Mr. Nantel for about four minutes.