Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members, for today's invitation.
Sport Canada is a branch of the Department of Canadian Heritage whose mission is to enhance opportunities for all Canadians to participate and excel in sport.
To fulfill our mission and contribute to the achievement of the Canadian sport policy goals, Sport Canada develops policies, provides financial support through funding programs, and undertakes a number of special initiatives.
That is Sport Canada's attempt to enhance the capacity and coordination of the Canadian sport system, encourage participation in sport and enable Canadians with talent and dedication to achieve excellence in international sport.
You'll know that the Canadian sport system has many layers, ranging from the international level to national teams, to provincial and territorial programming, and obviously at the grassroots level. Sport Canada plays mainly at the international and national levels.
Sport Canada funding is provided to contribute to the costs of individual athlete participation in high-level sport; to support national sport organizations, such as soccer and Paralympics and other colleagues here; to develop sport from the playground to the podium; to support national team programming, such as our women's national soccer team, and the training, competition, coaching, sport science, and medicine support that goes into those programs; and also to help support hosting events across Canada.
Sport Canada manages three funding programs that are focused on specific elements of our sport system.
Our first program is our sports support program. The sports support program is the primary funding vehicle for initiatives associated with the delivery of the Canadian sport policy. It has various streams, but its main focus is to support national sport organizations, Canadian sport centres—we have a network of centres across Canada--and various multi-sport service organizations.
The total budget for 2012-2013 for the sport support program is $143 million. This includes targeted funding that is recommended through the own-the-podium initiative, which I'll speak to in a moment.
The second component is the Athlete Assistance Program. That program contributes to improving Canadian performances at major international sporting events by supporting athletes already in the top 16 in the world. Over 1,800 athletes are supported through that program.
The budget for this year of the athlete assistance program is approximately $27 million for direct financial support to our best, highest-calibre athletes.
The third funding program is our hosting program. Peter alluded to it a moment ago. It aims to enhance the development of sport excellence and the international profile of sport organizations by assisting them to host Canada Games and other international sport events in the country. I noted many members here today are from communities that have hosted events like the Canada Games and other events in their communities. The program supports multi-sport events like the Vancouver Olympic Games, the 2015 Pan-American and Para-Pan-American Games, international single sports events like the Women's World Cup of soccer, and other multi-sport games targeting aboriginal peoples or persons with a disability, and, as I mentioned, the Canada Games program. The annual budget for that program is about $19 million.
The handout that you have has a pie chart that shows the distribution of funds that is provided for the current fiscal year from the Government of Canada.
Before discussing the London preparation, I'd like to bring you back to four years ago in Beijing, where our Olympic team consisted of 332 athletes: 186 men and 146 women. The goal put forth by the Olympic committee, Own the Podium, and the Government of Canada at the time was to place in the top 16 nations by total medal count. I'm pleased to say that we achieved that result, and actually did better, finishing tied for 13th spot, with a total of 18 medals. The handout outlines Canada's ranking vis-à-vis other countries of the world. That showed a distinct improvement from the previous quadrennial in Athens, where we finished in 19th place and had 12 medals overall.
Canada sent a team of 144 athletes to the Paralympic Games in Beijing in 2008. Canada won 50 medals, including 19 gold medals, and finished seventh overall in the world.
The most Canadian medals were won in athletics and swimming. As Mr. Storgaard said, a single athlete won five gold medals and set two world records. I'm talking about Chantal Petitclerc.
Last week I think you heard from the Canadian Olympic Committee identifying our collective objectives for London. In consultation with the Canadian Olympic Committee, Own the Podium, and the Government of Canada the organization has set a goal of a top 12 finish for London. Based on our tracking of Canadian results leading into the games, I'm pleased to say that Canada has won 17 medals across 10 sports; three each in rowing and swimming; two in cycling, diving, and equestrian; and one each in athletics, boxing, canoeing, and gymnastics. These are world-championship-level medals leading into the games. While a top 12 finish is ambitious, we believe it is achievable. In those sports for which Canada has medal potential it will be dependent, however, on the continued success and health of our top athletes. This is not an exact science. Obviously, athletes need to perform on a given day; a week later is obviously a bit too late. Again, it's not an exact science, but we feel very strongly that these athletes are well prepared going into London.
To continue Canada's tradition as a leading paralympic nation and to build upon its recent success at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Paralympic Games, the Canadian Paralympic Committee has set its goal for team Canada to post a top-eight finish in the gold-medal count at the upcoming London Games.
You heard last week and as well again today about the role of an organization called Own the Podium. It was created in 2006 in partnership with the Government of Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee, and the Canadian Paralympic Committee. It was based on a shared resolve to achieve success at future Olympic and Paralympic Games. It's providing focused leadership and common policies for both our winter and summer programs, and it makes funding recommendations to the national funding partners based on expert analysis and provides advice to national sport organizations in the development of their high-performance programs.
If you compare the Government of Canada's financial support for our teams going into the London quadrennial to the funding in the four years leading up to the Sydney quadrennial in 2004, it has actually tripled in terms of our Paralympic and Olympic programming. If you compare the last quadrennial in terms of Beijing, the funding has actually increased by 40%. We feel that we've provided the most significant funding ever to our Olympic and Paralympic teams as they head into major international competitions.
I'll leave it there for now, Mr. Chairman, and I look forward to your questions.
Merci.