moved for leave to introduce Bill C-319, An Act respecting a national strategy to reduce the incidence of serious injury in amateur sport.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand in the House to introduce this bill entitled, “National Strategy for Serious Injury Reduction in Amateur Sport Act”. This legislation would mandate that the federal government convene a conference of first ministers of health, as well as members of the athletic, medical and health communities in order to implement a strategy for tackling this growing public health concern.
Specifically, the bill outlines a strategy for the federal government to create a national sports injury surveillance and data collection system, establish substantive concussion guidelines, including a sufficient deterrent mechanism to ensure athletes are not being returned to play against expressed medical recommendations, create national training and educational standards for coaches and other persons involved in amateur sport, and institute incentivized funding guidelines to assist amateur sport organizations in implementing these protocols.
Since introducing a similar bill in the last Parliament, I have received overwhelming support from right across the country on this bill. It is my hope that my colleagues from across the aisle will assist me in getting the national sports injury reduction strategy passed as soon as possible.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)