Evidence of meeting #20 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was rio.
A video is available from Parliament.
June 7th, 2016 / 9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Yes. Thank you. I have a few brief questions.
You mentioned the number of athletes who are going to the games. Could you tell us about the makeup of the delegation in more detail?
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Executive Director, Sport, Canadian Paralympic Committee
Do you mean specifically the sports in which we will be competing and excelling or, rather, the number of men versus the number of women?
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Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
I'd like to know the representation of men versus women, the average age, in short, the overall makeup of the delegation.
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Executive Director, Sport, Canadian Paralympic Committee
All right.
In our case, we are going to have a large contingent of women at this edition of the games. I think this will probably bring the ratio to nearly fifty-fifty, given that we have a few teams that qualified on the women's side, such as in goalball and in sitting volleyball, but did not qualify on the men's side. That should bring us to a greater balance, compared with previous editions of the games.
As for sports in which we should have more participants, there is track and field, swimming, cycling, as well as team sports, including wheelchair basketball and rugby.
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Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Okay. Thank you.
Do the people from the Canadian Olympic Committee wish to add further information?
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Executive Director, Sport, Canadian Olympic Committee
Generally, in our case, the statistics are the same, in other words, about fifty-fifty. There has really been a lot of progress. Much work had been done in terms of team sports. In London, two of our teams qualified, while five teams have already qualified so far. There are till a few qualifying events, in particular for men's rugby and basketball.
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Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Thank you.
I have one more important question.
How is the Canadian Paralympic Committee going to ensure coverage of the games is in both official languages, in Canada and abroad? How are you going to make sure that linguistic duality is respected?
9:35 a.m.
Executive Director, Communications and Marketing, Canadian Paralympic Committee
The Canadian Paralympic Committee is proud of the fact that there will be more than 40 hours of original broadcasts in French, with the participation of Radio-Canada and our partner AMI-télé. Broadcasting in both official languages is very important, but we think it's also important to make content available to the blind, to provide described video for sporting events. That way, all Canadians, including the blind, can have access to programming in both official languages, through the AMI-télé and AMI-tv services.
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Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
How many hours of programming did you say would be in English? I heard 300 hours.
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Executive Director, Communications and Marketing, Canadian Paralympic Committee
The number of hours of original programming will be 60 in English and 40 in French. In total, there will be 200 hours of programming, as there will be a number of rebroadcasts.
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Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you very much.
I go to a second round of five minutes each. Mr. Waugh from the Conservatives will lead off.
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Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, everyone, for coming.
I'm going to go to you, Chris, and they've got to be short answers. I'm going to share with Mr. Maguire.
First of all, in Regina you have a couple of new board members. Congratulations. I think the COC has made a positive move for diversity, so I commend you for that. We needed some new board members. I think you have cleaned the slate.
I come from Saskatchewan. We're going to get a gold medallist in Rio, Brianne Theisen-Eaton. She married up, of course, but I have been in sports for a long time, and I'm seeing some of our best athletes not going through our sports performance centres but instead going to the NCAA.
In this case, fine, Brianne's going to be there, and we know she's going to win gold or silver, but how can we retain our athletes instead of seeing them go to the States?
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Chief Executive Officer and Secretary General, Canadian Olympic Committee
That's a terrific question. I'll be as brief as I can be.
First of all, I echo your sentiments 100% with respect to our board members. We just came off a board retreat in Halifax this past weekend where all of our board members made strong contributions, but in particular the contributions of those who have just joined us were quite visible and felt. Again, I echo your sentiments.
The matter of athletes leaving for the NCAA is both a blessing and a curse, I might argue. Obviously, it's probably one of the best-developed collegial systems in the world, if not the best, so our athletes who are afforded the opportunity to go greatly benefit from it and from that higher level of competition.
That said, many of our provinces, as you well know, have a commitment and have taken time, energy, and significant investment to invest in these centres.
As you probably well know, the Canadian Olympic Committee has been an outstanding supporter of those centres in recent times, having contributed $3 million to programs and to a lesser extent operations in those centres across the country over the last four years. As recently as this weekend, we had a representative from the COPSIN network join us at the board meeting to talk about our way forward together. It's certainly something we're considering strongly for our strategic plan in the next four years.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
I know we have five teams going this year, right now, and there could be more; men's volleyball just qualified. The Own the Podium money right now, however, for sports that aren't in it.... We're seeing big numbers in baseball and we're seeing them in softball, and I know they're coming in four years' time, but it seems that Own the Podium really rewards our medals, such as medals in canoeing.
Some of the sports that don't have higher participation numbers in this country seem to get it because they are getting gold medals and silver medals, as in rowing and canoeing, but our sports that are trying to get in there are being left out.
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Chief Executive Officer and Secretary General, Canadian Olympic Committee
Yes. First of all I want to acknowledge the very significant contribution the federal government makes through Sport Canada to Own the Podium and the collaborative work we've done with Sport Canada in our work with Own the Podium. I sit on that board, and I'm very proud to do so.
The country made a decision some time ago, more than 10 years ago now, to take on targeting as a declared high-performance strategy. I think from most people's perspective it could be fairly said that it has been a successful strategy for Canada, but it's also the case that it comes at a price for those sports that otherwise struggle to make ends meet, both as it relates to their operational elements but also as it goes to developing future athletes. It is something we spend a great deal of time talking about.
You probably also are aware that Sport Canada, under the minister's leadership, is currently undertaking a review of targeting as a strategy as it relates to the broader sport system. We're all involved in that very collaborative discussion. I think that will only produce good outcomes toward the end of the year.
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Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
I have one question, then, for Mr. Maguire.
Canada declined 2024 for holding the summer Olympics. We'll see whether L.A. gets it, but it has been 40 years since this country last held a summer Olympics. I know we've had Vancouver and Calgary, and there's talk about Quebec City joining for the winter Olympics, but I think our next step maybe should be the summer games, because—and I know this country can be seen as a country of winter Olympians—I think summer would be our next best shot, depending on what L.A. does.
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Chief Executive Officer and Secretary General, Canadian Olympic Committee
Was that a question, Mr. Waugh?
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Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
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Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
That's a question. Would you go summer over winter? The summer athletes now are feeling somewhat neglected, to be honest with you, since we put so much money into our winter programs.
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Conservative
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Liberal
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Chief Executive Officer and Secretary General, Canadian Olympic Committee
I'll only say that of course that decision does not rest with me, sir. That decision is part of a broader process that we've initially undertaken.
As you might know, we have sent out letters of inquiry to seven cities across the country. We've received feedback from I think all of them now. Through the process over the next several months, we will evaluate first whether or not hosting an Olympic Games is a good decision strategically for the country, and then from there our session will make a decision as to whether it would be summer or winter Olympics, if at all.
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Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
I have a very important question that I will ask representatives of both committees to answer.
What kinds of improvements would you suggest the government make in the lead-up to the next Olympics? You have been through certain experiences; these are not your first games. At this point in the preparations for the games in Rio, what sorts of improvements could be made in advance of the next games? There must be some challenges you are facing for which you could use some help.