Canadian Heritage Committee on May 31st, 2012

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Pierre Nantel]

First of all, I would like to apologize for being late. We are going to start right away.

I would like to thank all the witnesses for being here today. Let me introduce them: His Excellency Andrew John Pocock, British High Commissioner to Canada, Marcel Aubut, President of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Mr. Overholt, and Charmaine Althia Crooks, Canadian Olympian. I would like to congratulate you for all the work that you have done.

I am going to give the floor to His Excellency Mr. Pocock right away.

[His Excellency Andrew John Pocock, British High Commissioner to Canada, British High Commission]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for letting me be here to talk a little about the Olympic Games.

I thought I'd start with a quick overview and then have a brief word about the Olympics and the Paralympics. Needless to say, this is an exciting year for us. We have not just the diamond jubilee, but of course we also have the enormous games of 2012. We're very proud to be hosting them: London is the only city to have hosted the Olympic Games three times.

The good news is that the preparations are in great shape. We're on time. Indeed, all the major venues were completed about a year ago to allow for extensive testing, and that's ongoing as we speak. To remind you of the dates, the Olympic opening ceremony will be on July 27, and the Paralympics start on August 29.

Amazingly, we're on budget. The total public sector funding for the Olympic Games is £9.3 billion, and this covers all the additional security, defence, and public transport provisions. Obviously, we see it very much as an investment in Britain's future in sport, but also in a whole range of other things, including infrastructure, transport, communication, employment and, indeed, the economy as a whole.

Olympic Park—and I hope some of you will get a chance to see it in the flesh—is a showcase of British design, construction, and environmental concern. We've used building methods throughout the whole process that have reduced carbon footprints, majored on recycling, and have contributed, we think, to a very green games.

No presentation would be complete without a few random statistics. Here they are: we're expecting a global audience of about four billion—a fair percentage of the planet. There will be 14,000 Olympic athletes and 4,000 Paralympic athletes. We're expecting 120 heads of state and government to attend the opening ceremony. By contrast, there were 89 in Beijing—and so we've seen a quantum increase. Moreover, 25,000 journalists will beam this to you blow by blow, and we're expecting about 330,000 extra visitors in the U.K. over the period of the games.

Let me talk briefly about the Olympics themselves. We have 57 days and counting to the start of what is to be the 30th Olympiad, so the marathon is over and we're in the final sprint, if you'll allow a slightly corny pun. The Olympic torch is in Britain, and is being run around the entire country, including the island of Ireland. It'll pass within about an hour of 95% of the whole population.

Olympic Park itself is one of the jewels of the whole process. It has transformed a site in east London that was derelict as the consequence of war, neglect, and industrial pollution, and it's turned it into the largest urban park in Europe. It's got a whole new ecology of wildlife, woodlands, wetlands, and waterways. It's intended to be not just a powerful environmental statement, but also a powerful environmental legacy.

Obviously sport is at its centre, but if there is a broader theme for these games, it is legacy, and legacy in terms of sustainability. It's in the DNA of the project. The whole place was designed to be light in terms of its footprint; the Olympic stadium, for what it's worth, is the lightest ever built, at a mere 10,000 tonnes of steel by comparison to some real behemoths in the past. It's not intended to be just architecturally stunning, but it's intended for future use, which has been a key consideration. We don't want white elephants in London, and six of the eight major Olympic venues are already contracted for use beyond 2012. For example, the Olympic stadium itself, after the games, will become first a premiership football ground, and then it will host the world athletic championships in 2017.

Ladies and gentlemen, there's a vision for the park for the next 20 years. We want it to be a new place to work, live, and play. It will have beautiful open spaces. It will have iconic architecture, and more important than that, it will have links to the rest of London, Britain, and of course Europe, because the games are about more than just either sport or, indeed, London. They are about the revitalization, in part, of the five poorest boroughs of east London, and we've seen substantial corporate investment already taking place.

A new area of east London called Tech City is a fast-growing cluster of small digital start-up companies, which is extending into the east end. We have a green enterprise district that is attracting sustainable technology start-ups. We already have the largest shopping centre in Europe very close to the games, with 10,000 permanent jobs resulting and a million shoppers showing up in the first week. There must be a recession somewhere, but I'm not sure it's in east London at the moment.

Central to all this is the transport infrastructure. We have turned what was the least well connected part of London into one of the best, with light railway, underground bus transport, and a whole range of other things. That is all virtually ready to go.

Let me talk briefly about what will be the 14th Paralympiad. We're determined to make this the most accessible games ever. Indeed, London 2012 is the first games in which both the planning and the organization of the Olympics and Paralympics have been fully integrated. Disability access is incorporated into everything—all the venues, all the open spaces, and all the public transport. Why, you might ask? There are three reasons.

The first reason is that the paralympic movement started in London. It started in 1948. London will have hosted the games three times, as I said, in 1908, 1948, and this year. In 1948, at a hospital called Stoke Mandeville just outside London, which was full of disabled World War II veterans, there was an archery contest in parallel with the 1948 games. From that very small beginning came the idea of disabled athletes taking part in the greatest games in the world. By 1960 they were a more formal part, and by 1984 they were fully integrated into the Olympic Games. We're very proud in London that the Paralympics are effectively coming home.

The second reason is disabled people themselves. There's a strong ambition that the games should change the way, as best we can, people look at disability and encourage the idea that disabled people should be allowed to lead more independent lives.

The third reason, of course, is that we want to encourage more disabled people to take part in sport. I've had the very great privilege of meeting a number of Canada's paralympic athletes in swimming, wheelchair basketball—your captain has already won medals in a number of games and seems determined to take the gold off us again—and wheelchair rugby. I can only ask you to imagine what wheelchair rugby must be like. There is an extraordinary level of fitness, confidence, and commitment involved. London is very pleased to have all of this.

I'll just end by saying that we're delighted and looking forward to welcoming Canada's athletes and, of course, the world's. It's very close. We're excited, but we're not complacent. There is still the question of delivering a safe and secure games that's also a friendly and accessible one, but we're on the case.

Thank you very much for listening, and I'd be happy in due course to take any questions.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Pierre Nantel]

Thank you very much, Your Excellency.

I will now give the floor to Marcel Aubut from the Canadian Olympic Committee.

[Marcel Aubut, President, Canadian Olympic Committee]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It is a pleasure to be here. Good morning, everyone.

I'm very pleased to have heard that the Canadian athletes are going to have special treatment in London.

It is an honour to be here with you today to provide you with an update about the preparations of the Canadian Olympic team, less than two months away from the Games.

Thank you for the invitation to join you today. I would like you to look at the screen. You will get the first glimpse of what we focus on at the Canadian Olympic Committee 24/7, 365 days a year.

[Video Presentation]

I am very pleased to be here with a member of the board of the Canadian Olympic Committee and former Olympian, Charmaine Crooks; and with the CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Christopher Overholt.

The video you just saw highlights the relentless pursuit of excellence by our Canadian Olympians.

Honourable members, the Canadian Olympic Committee is respected in the worldwide sporting community for its professionalism and best-in-class programs.

You'll be surprised to hear the following information. Each time I say it, people have a tough time believing it: The Canadian Olympic Committee, which we represent, is the largest private sector funder of high-performance sport in Canada.

This is not to be confused with the role of the Government of Canada, which is the largest contributor to sport in the country. But when it comes to high-performance sport, the Canadian Olympic Committee is the largest private-sector contributor.

Continued strong and stable government funding is critical to success today, tomorrow, and in the future. It's absolutely critical.

In the most recent budget, the Harper government reiterated that support, even with a very tough budget. On behalf of the athletes and coaches of this country, as well as all national sport federations, we thank the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, and the Minister of State (Sport) for this confidence.

Having said that, our athletes will continue to demonstrate that continued support is really essential if we are going to prepare the next generation of Olympians.

The Canadian Olympic Committee's approach to preparing for the Olympic Games is more similar to the approach for Formula 1, which will be in Montreal in a week, than what is usually done in amateur sport.

It's really a Formula One approach as far as preparing Team Canada for the Olympic Games is concerned.

Our athletes and our coaches do not leave anything to chance in the preparations, and neither does the Canadian Olympic Committee. We are not leaving anything to chance in our efforts to provide athletes and coaches with all the tools they need to win medals and to be successful.

In terms of performance expectations for the games, the goal of the Canadian Olympic team is to finish among the top 12 countries in the total medal count. “Top 12 in 2012” was our slogan. This is a bold, ambitious goal and it will not be easy to achieve, but as you all know, excellence never is.

We anticipate sending a team of more than 250 athletes and 90 coaches to compete in London in two months.

At the Canadian Olympic Committee we work to ensure that Canadian athletes have the optimal conditions to perform at their best during the games. Our strongest expertise in this area has come from listening to the athletes and coaches themselves. That's the way we build and improve our programs, by listening.

We learned that they found Olympic competition to be very different from any other competitive environment. Why it's so different is the media attention. I'll give you just a few examples.

In 24 hours they become rock stars and a lot of them are not prepared for that. That's why we prepare them for it.

There's stress, not stress through the competition as much as having all their friends, parents, and everybody around. They want tickets, they want a accreditation, they want all kinds of things, and they are stressed for their families. I think they have enough stress and we should find a way not to add any more, and that's our job.

Accreditation is a good example of this. It's so limited, especially in London. I don't know what they did with accreditation, but they limited it so much because the whole world is going to be there.

It's through our analysis of those performances that we could deliver our strongest Olympic preparation series to date. It's the best we've ever done as far as preparation is concerned.

Our preparation includes a wide range of orientation events designed to prepare the athletes and the entire mission team for the very special and unique environment of the Olympic Games. This includes workshops for athletes' families and friends on what they should expect and on their role to support the athletes. Their families and friends should not have too many expectations, just the right amount; they have to get used to the idea before they go. The purpose of all that is to better support the athletes, either by putting less pressure on them, or by encouraging them in a positive way by being in the right place at the right time, and avoiding to put extra pressure on them. That is just another way for us to make sure that the entire Canadian Olympic family will be ready to support our athletes in London at all times.

Here is how we are attempting to be the best-in-class as far as this preparation is concerned. I'm going to give you a few examples of what we are going to do and face over there, to show you how much we want to create the optimal preparation for our athletes.

Our first planning trip to London for these games took place in May 2007, more than five years before the games themselves.

Our operations team is responsible for planning all the logistical details for approximately 600 people for approximately 28 days, from July 16 to August 12—and when I talk about 28 days, they are days and nights. COC is absolutely responsible for all of those people for every minute of the 28 days. We are the only ones responsible. We cannot say that we will do this part, Chair, and that someone else is going to do that part; we are the only ones who do it. We are responsible for that 600-people team for every second of 28 days.

To give you an idea of the scope of our operation, a few weeks ago we sent our cargo shipment with clothing, equipment, and Canadian snacks to London. That shipment filled ten 40-foot sea containers. Our outfitting station in Langdon Park School in London, close to the Olympic village, will be the uniform headquarters—and that's just for uniforms. Athletes and the mission team will be fully outfitted by our official partner, the Hudson's Bay Company, with Olympic team clothing made in Canada.

Again, to give you an idea of the scope of this, over a five-day period, the outfitting team of 10 people, helped by a few volunteers, will pre-pack, one by one, over 600 team bags for all of our different athletes and mission team members. In each bag,

what will there be?

There will be 29 pieces of clothing and 13 sponsor and partner gifts.

Our athletes will be housed primarily in the Olympic village, of course, but also in a few satellite locations such as the Olympic Park, Dorney Lake, and Weymouth.

In the village itself, the COC will specifically provide many different services on-site. For example, athletes can find orientation information, computer stations, games coverage on televisions, etc.

They are also going to get supplements, nutritional snacks and drinks. We have a team that takes care of the tickets, to allow our athletes to attend some of the other events.

Do you want two? Well, we will select all those who want tickets to allow you to go. Do you just want two tickets? You will have to tell me for which event.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Pierre Nantel]

I just wanted to tell you that you have about two minutes left.

[Marcel Aubut]

Oh, okay.

We have a health and science clinic for the athletes staffed by top experts. We have a place called

the wellness centre to provide a calm and relaxing experience. It will also help athletes focus on performance. The technology is top of the line. We have a performance technology centre to analyze any performance for the next one, and we have a very large and quality gym.

Most mission teams will be hosted by the performance centre located in the large new student residence near the Olympic village. Almost identical facilities to those in the Olympic village will be available there for the balance of the team.

In addition to the athletes, coaches, team leaders and technical support staff at the core, there are a lot more people. It's a big team.

This team includes doctors, therapists, the operations team, the organizational team, the communications team and the RCMP staff responsible for security.

Speaking of security, we are very well equipped in this area as well. The security staff is specifically responsible for the security of the Canadian Olympic team and for protecting our athletes.

Wider Olympic security on the ground is being take care of by the host group, LOCOG, and they have all our confidence. LOCOG is like VANOC was in Vancouver; they are really well equipped for security. We also have our own robust emergency management plan in place in the event that a situation occurs.

Communications will be at the top. We will be able to communicate among ourselves. There are lots of facilities and we are going to be the best ever about communicating with all Canadians at any moment.

As you know we are doing the announcement of everything going on. We have syncro, we just did diving, and we do that every day. That will give our athletes the highest visibility, which is what we want to do as a priority at the Olympic committee. We want those athletes being treated as well as any professional athletes.They deserve it in representing our country so well.

On the ground, our communications team will work from the main press centre and the Canada Olympic House in order to keep Canadians fully informed as the games unfold.

Of course, given the scope of these operations, we only presented a snapshot of what we do to be prepared to win.

But you can see the incredible effort made there to win. We just want to win. We want this country to be so proud about having this team over there, representing all Canadians.

Now I would like to have the last video, just before I close.

Thank you for your time.

Go ahead.

[Video Presentation]

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Pierre Nantel]

Thank you, Mr. Aubut. At any rate, that gets us in the mood. We have clearly seen how strong the support is for our athletes. They will be going to an incredibly well-organized event. Thank you.

We now have the chance to welcome an athlete who has participated in the Olympic Games for the fourth time. This is the real McCoy, the real deal.

Thank you, Ms. Charmaine Crooks. You have our attention.

[Charmaine Crooks, Five time Canadian Olympian and Olympic Silver Medalist, As an Individual]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, and your excellency.

What a pleasure it is to be here with you all today and have the opportunity to share with you the journey of the Canadian athletes as they move toward London, 2012. As we heard, there will be about 14,000 athletes present, and every single one of them represents the passion and the perseverance that it takes to be a champion, both on the field of play and off.

I'm also honoured to be among the many past Olympians from Canada, over 4,000, who have competed for Canada, the alumni, as we help to support the Canadian Olympic Committee and all the partners in sport to help a new generation of athletes bound for the London summer games and beyond.

You heard President Aubut speaking of the support of the team, and that support, indeed, is second to none by the standards of other national Olympic committees. Having had a chance to compete on the Canadian team for over 20 years—I retired about 15 years ago now—I can tell you that our national Olympic committee is doing an excellent job in preparing today's generation of Olympians. From the excellence series, from the familiarization trips, from the new partnerships, and from the technical innovation of many of our partners onboard, we are doing the right thing for our athletes from coast to coast. We're also doing the right thing by including Olympians in the planning process as well. As you know, we will be led into London by our chef de mission, Mark Tewksbury.

Our support staff, the volunteers, the coaches, and the communities across our nation play a critical role to the success of every athlete who will be competing in London. I see from the experiences and from what we've heard today, and what I get to experience every day by being part of the Canadian sports system, that no stone will be left unturned to help our athletes perform at their best on the competitive sports stage.

We may even give your team, Mr. Pocock, a run for their money.

[Andrew John Pocock]

We look forward to running.

[Charmaine Crooks]

Exactly.

That stage has never been a more difficult one, quite frankly, for our summer athletes. Competing with over 204 Olympic committees, Canada's goal is to be in the top 12 in 2012. It's a goal that we all strive for, and a goal that we are all committed to on a daily basis.

Dreaming big is what every athlete does every day. I remember when my first dream was inspired as a young immigrant who had come to Canada, where sport helped me to build self-esteem. It also helped me to work as a member of a team and helped me to embrace my new community. Sport is where I first learned the power of striving for goals and achieving my best in excellence. That's why I'm so drawn to sport and why I'm so proud to be here as part of this team, to be able to present to you what is going to happen in London in about 50 days from now.

Like many athletes, role models also inspired me. There is no doubt that these athletes you saw in the video and whom you'll meet will do the same for our youth, as their stories and performances will be shared with Canadians from coast to coast. But to get there goes beyond the many years of hard work, dedication, and commitment for an event that often lasts a few minutes and, in some cases, a few seconds. Any technical advantage that can be put forward for athletes will and does make a difference, and the team behind the team will not take its foot off the pedal until every athlete has competed to the best of his or her ability.

That is the main focus, preparing the athletes, and that is how it should be. Whether these athletes go to London, no matter how they go, they will be surrounded by a supportive, inclusive atmosphere of fellow Canadians. Through their experiences, Canadians will be connected to those Olympic values they represent, of fair play, of excellence, and fun.

It's the excitement from those Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games that still resonates in the minds of Canadians. I know you all recall hearing the national anthem 14 times for a record of 14 gold medals on home turf. That continues to inspire all of us today and it motivates and buoys our team as we head into London. It was also a launching pad, those games in our country, to build a more sustainable sport culture that engages communities, builds legacies, builds capacities, and builds champions beyond sport.

This sport culture has many facets and you heard about some of them already. But we know that a vital part of that team is the national sport federations, the many volunteers who work tirelessly with athletes every day, and the network of training centres across Canada that allows our athletes to have a venue to train and perform in. And, of course, we could not do it without our families behind us and world-class coaches, equally dedicated to high performance.

These athletes are doing it on a world scale and they're doing it under tremendous pressure. But they're doing it with a steely focus and a drive to win that is inherent in the campaign Give Your Everything. And if their experience was anything like mine a very long time ago when a lot of these resources were not as available then as they are today—and they do need more—I know that they are able and capable of handling that pressure, because all of Canada is behind them when the world has its eyes on them.

Finally, I'd like to thank you all again for the support that all of you have given to Canadian athletes. We know that going into London, they will know that they are standing on the shoulders of all Canadians.

Thank you very much.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Pierre Nantel]

Thank you, Ms. Crooks, for that vibrant testimony.

We will go into our first round of questions, of seven minutes.

So I will first give the floor to Mr. Calandra.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all our guests today. I appreciate it.

Your excellency, I want to start with you. There's been a lot going on, obviously, in the eurozone and it's nice to be talking about something that is fun and exciting.

You talked about Olympic Park and how it has revitalized that area of London. It's safe to say that the Olympics is just a small part of revitalizing an entire community. I'm very interested in that because we, of course, will be hosting the Pan Am Games here in 2015. Would you talk a bit more about that?

Also, one thing I want to commend you on is this. When we talk about international events, the focus always seems to be on security at these events. While we know the security is well in hand and taken care of, it has been very nice to see a focus on the games, the athletes, and the revitalizing of a particular area of London, as opposed to all of the security that goes into it.

Would you talk a bit more about the projects surrounding the Olympic Park?

[Andrew John Pocock]

Thank you very much for that question. I'm very glad to answer it.

The Olympics have actually been central to revitalizing east London. Cast your minds back: It's the area along the Thames that used to be old dockyards, heavily bombed in the war, never really rebuilt. It had very poor transport infrastructure and a great deal of industrial pollution from the fifties and sixties—a real smokestack area.

When we bid for the games, we planned at the very start that this had to be about more than sport. Sport would be at the core of it; it's a huge festival of sport. It's the most complex sporting event in the world. World Cups may be slightly larger in some ways, but they're for one sport. This is 25 world championships happening at once. So sports is certainly at the core, but the games must radiate beyond the core.

We felt we weren't going to spend almost £10 billion of taxpayers' money just for sport. So we looked at two things in particular: the revitalization of a particular area of the City of London; and secondly, as I mentioned earlier on, legacy, and what happens after 2012. Of course, the two things are linked.

While I haven't actually been in Olympic Park, I've driven past it and have seen the pictures and the videos, and it is the most staggering piece of infrastructure I have personally ever seen. It is vast, it's complicated, and it's many layered. It's about architecture, but it's about all the environmental dimensions I mentioned, because it has to live after 2012. And it's about transport; no one was going to get to and from the games on what existed beforehand.

That combination, I think, of infrastructure, transport, and corporate investment has radiated like a beneficent bomb burst out from Olympic Park. There has been a huge amount of money poured into local communities in the form of jobs, in the form of contracts. That, we think, will last for decades, and it's designed to do so.

The Olympics is at the core of it, but it's also about revitalization through the economy and technology and thinking about the future. As I mentioned earlier on, six of the eight major venues will be reused. The Olympic Village will become community housing, in part, and there are a great deal of other spinoffs, including the technology and one or two other points that I also mentioned. So it's a huge, integrated package of economic uplift and sustainable use.

I'd be happy to give you more detail if you need it.

You mentioned the dreaded word “security”. I was in Australia in 2000 and attended the Sydney Olympics, and they were marvellous games. They were remarkably friendly. The Australians, I think, brought into particular prominence the use of volunteers to bring people into the games and make them feel at home. They set a very high standard. We're trying to equal that in London and we have to find a balance between security and accessibility.

Australia had two advantages in 2000. One, it's a long way from anywhere. Border security is actually easier. Second, the games took place before 9/11. It was before the upsurge of the kinds of attacks that we've seen across the world. In the U.K. we have homegrown security concerns; they don't have to be imported.

What you've seen in the British press—and the British press loves hot stories—is the ring of steel around London. We have thousands of the Metropolitan Police. We have thousands more private security people. We have the British Army standing by quietly and off the scene. The Royal Navy is parked in the Thames. We have fighter aircraft in London for the first time since the Second World War. We have Rapier missiles perched on people's apartment buildings. That's all true. It's all necessary, it's all part of not being complacent or taking anything for granted.

But you're quite right that it's not the accent we want for the games. What we want is a friendly and accessible games. There will have to be the initial security check, but inside the park one hopes we will get something like the Sydney spirit—a London spirit that is open, warm, and freely mingling. The world is at our doorstep. We want to welcome it.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Thank you.

How much time do I have?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Pierre Nantel]

A couple of minutes and a half.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Okay, good.

Mr. Aubut, I just want to congratulate the COC. There seems to be a real focus back on athletics and performance, yes, as well as supporting the athletes—not only the athletes at the games but also in the lead-up to the games. There seems to be a really different focus.

I wonder how you've come to that, and going forward, what resources we can provide to help continue that.

[Marcel Aubut]

Thank you for the question.

We call it a real turnaround. We arrived with a very ambitious platform. I come from professional sports. I learned a lot there about the business side of it.

We were able to build the best team. We have the number two from the Miami Dolphins and the number two from Nike.

I just told all those Canadians who were away to come with me. We were going to make something great for this country. There were already fantastic people at the COC, such as the chief sport officer, Caroline Assalian, and others. We even got the director of communications for the Prime Minister of Canada. You have to really look for the best.

To build a team that is making a transition and making the whole Canadian Olympic Committee what it should be we first put the athletes at the middle of everything we do.

What influenced me a lot was that there is a parade for the Stanley Cup and a parade for the Grey Cup. But what about a parade for the athletes? They do a lot more.

I had a hidden life when I owned the Nordiques. I was helping the amateur athletes in great secrecy. If you talk to Sylvie Bernier, Caroline Brunet, and Pierre Harvey, they will tell you that Marcel did something for them. There is no secret there. I really felt that those athletes had something special. I'm not saying that mine were not good, but mine were playing as a team and also were making millions of dollars. Those ones were not making any dollars, and they were playing, usually, individually. When I saw a family, a couple, just destroyed by the dreams of the kid, that really influenced me.

After I left professional hockey, it was just natural to make the whole circle and help my country as far as amateur sport was concerned. That's why I did that. I wanted to give back. But I wanted to give back with a very precise plan in mind, which is to absolutely put the athlete in the middle and to do it the way I've done anything before, with the best team of Canadians you can find. They are dedicated to the cause. That's why you see so many changes.

We want visibility for the athletes 365 days a year. We just discovered, and for me it is a discovery, that the best asset of this country is those athletes. That's the best we can offer.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Pierre Nantel]

Thank you, Mr. Aubut.

[Marcel Aubut]

To have the chance to work with them is a privilege.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Pierre Nantel]

Thank you.

I will now give the floor to Matthew Dubé.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would also like to thank the witnesses for joining us.

I appreciate your remarks, Mr. Aubut. I actually think that what is so interesting about the Olympics is the Olympic spirit, unlike in professional sport. We are talking about amateur athletes who do amazing things with a lot less, compared to a professional athlete. I feel that we can all appreciate that. That is what's so great for us in politics. Your victories go beyond the so-called customary divisions in the country. We are fully aware of the work that you do and we thank you for it.

Having said that, as a former athlete—and I think that anyone from the sport community will tell you the same thing—you always want to do better and to be more successful. I feel that's what you are doing in your work for the Olympics this summer.

I know that you had a chance to make requests and recommendations under the 2012 prebudget consultations and that they were submitted last summer. I would like to go back to that and find out what the impact of those consultations was on your preparations and on preparing to do an even better job than in Vancouver. We have seen some great accomplishments since the Own the Podium program started.

I know that a few initiatives were recommended, such as the creation of Canadian institutes of sport, a national initiative like the physical education literacy prize for children, and a child fitness tax credit, fully refundable to disadvantaged families. Those are very nice initiatives, but we have not seen any of them yet, unfortunately.

In light of that and of the accomplishments, what can we do in the future to further improve the preparations for the Olympics this summer and for future Olympic Games?

[Marcel Aubut]

When it comes to that, we are really very close to our goal. There is not much more left to do, aside from working out the details and fine-tuning things. As for the Vancouver Olympic Games, we saw that, when governments and the private sector invested, the results were immediate. Own the Podium, which was created for the Vancouver Olympics, produced the expected results.

Immediately after the Vancouver Olympic Games, the government could have ended that program, since the games were finished. We insisted that the program not be abolished. We must seize the opportunity at every Olympic Games. It is not about making an exception because we are at home. Things do not work that way with athletes. We will have as many opportunities in London as in Sochi or Rio de Janeiro. So the government heard us. The Own the Podium program was kept alive, and for the summer Olympics, it was possible to keep most of the financial support provided for the Vancouver Olympic Games.

However, there is still so much left to do! We are lucky to have had this support, this interest, and no budget cuts, and so on. Athletes' needs are constantly growing. Things are getting more expensive at every games, and there is always more technology. We need to have access to that technology in order to remain competitive; otherwise, we will get left behind. As I was recently being told, since we were ranked number one at the Vancouver Olympic Games, the first thing other countries did was try to figure out how they could surpass us. Holding on to the number one ranking is one of the most difficult things to achieve. So that assistance needs to continue. There is a whole plethora of solutions.

For those who are asking how they can help us, we have about 50 solutions to propose. However, it is important to proceed in stages, one step at a time. I think it is our turn to show governments at all levels that the private sector is ready to do more. We are working on reaching agreements with Bell Canada, Suncor, Air Canada, the Royal Bank, Hudson's Bay, and so on, and our involvement surpasses anything previously seen in the history of the Canadian Olympic movement.

Usually, all that assistance drops down to zero following the Olympic Games. People have invested so much in the Games that they want to do something else with their money. There is a lot of volatility in the difficult economic situation we are currently experiencing. Despite that, we have convinced these companies to invest record amounts so that the efforts may continue. Then we can meet with governments again, compare their contribution with that of the private sector and let them know how more can be done.

We have an endless stream of ideas when it comes to that. Tax credits are a very good idea. There is also that famous amateur sport network we would like to create in order to raise public awareness about sports and promote them, and to be able to have recurring revenues from this type of operation some day.

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

Thank you. I appreciate your answer. I think it is interesting that you talked about the role of the private sector and that you established a comparison with Formula 1, in terms of organization and scale. I do think that new technologies and improvements in communications will make it increasingly easy for people to have access to international events, in spite of time zones and everything else. At times, a sporting event may take place in the middle of the night.

I am thinking of a fairly famous example. In 1980, Miracle on Ice was held. One of the reasons why that was such a nice story was the fact that students were involved, young amateurs who had met a major challenge.

How do you reconcile the marketing aspect, the magnitude of the corporate element, and the healthy side of sports, which has been the very spirit of the Olympics since their origins, in Greece?

[Marcel Aubut]

I don't think that there is a paradox, a contradiction, between the two. Even if we show the best spirit possible, and we have excellent performances, good coaches, good programs and so on, we cannot do anything without financial support. Without that support, everything will eventually start cracking and fall apart. What is really needed is a combination of the two. We can avoid making the whole thing commercial and preserve competitive purity, discipline and the Olympic values we defend every day. There is a way to deal with that, but we must take all those elements into account. One does not necessarily cancel out the other. There should not be any concerns about that.

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

I would like to come back to a point, which may seem minor, but which I think is very important. This was mentioned when we talked about support for athletes' families. We all followed with much interest what Joannie Rochette went through when her mother passed away during the Vancouver Olympic Games. We realize how much of a cornerstone family is in athletes' lives. Family support in terms of results is very important.

My question, which is for everyone, is about what is happening in London, but also about how an athlete experiences such a situation. You mentioned it briefly. What can we do to help families and maintain this collective support?