Canadian Heritage Committee on June 5th, 2012

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Good morning, everyone.

Exceptionally, I will preside over this meeting until our colleague Mr. Moore arrives. I want to begin by welcoming everyone. Thank you for coming to share your experience with us. We are preparing for a major event in the Olympic Games, which will take place this summer.

Joining us today are the following witnesses: Henry Storgaard, from the Canadian Paralympic Committee; Peter Montopoli, from the Canadian Soccer Association; Lane MacAdam, from the Department of Canadian Heritage; Graham Brown, from Rugby Canada; Chris Jones, from the Sport Matters Group; and Pierre Lafontaine, from Swimming Canada.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Please note that the presentations will be slightly shortened to seven minutes each. We ask that you keep that in mind. We have many witnesses this morning, and we want to hear from everyone. We want to have the opportunity to talk to you. I will let you know when you reach the six-minute mark. My signal will not mean that I want to speak, but that you have one minute left.

I now yield the floor to Henry Storgaard.

[Henry Storgaard, Chief Executive Officer / Secretary General, Canadian Paralympic Committee]

Thank you.

It's a pleasure to be here to share with you information on the Canadian Paralympic Committee and our athletes and coaches who are preparing for London. I'm the CEO. I proudly represent the 150 athletes and 40 coaches who will be representing our country in London in less than 90 days.

Paralympic athletes are athletes with a physical disability. Many of them have been victims of accidents or other events that have caused them to not be able to participate in able-bodied sport and have an option to carry on their career in sports or to carry on in their active lifestyles through parasport and Paralympic sport.

I want to share with you that my story really begins in Vancouver two years ago, with the Vancouver Paralympic Winter Games. Canadian Paralympic athletes were not particularly well known among Canadians at that point in time, until the games and the broadcast of the games. Fourteen million Canadians watched our Paralympic athletes compete in sledge hockey, cross-country skiing, and numerous other events.

Our success in Vancouver was outstanding. We placed third in the world, which for us is a significant accomplishment. It also brought us a great deal of awareness and pride. I think all of you will recall that coming out of Vancouver, all Canadians had a greater sense of pride and confidence, and realized that they could go for gold in whatever endeavour they chose.

Vancouver has been very good to the Canadian Paralympic Committee. As a result of that, our funding from the Government of Canada has increased. That funding has enabled us as an organization to secure private sector funds and corporate funding. We've made a commitment to Sport Canada and the Government of Canada that we will match their funds within the next two years. Right now, we get 65% of our funds from the Government of Canada and about 35% from the private sector. We are very grateful for that funding. It's enabled us and our athletes to compete at the top level in the world.

To give you an example, one of our athletes, Michelle Stilwell, is a wheelchair racer along the lines of Chantal Petitclerc, who I'm sure you've heard of, one of Canada's top Paralympians, having won five gold medals in Beijing. Recently we were able to provide Michelle with a new wheelchair, the highest-end, state-of-the-art racing wheelchair that you could buy in the world. Since she got that new chair, which is a construction of carbon fibre and titanium, Michelle has set three world records in her lead-up to the Paralympic Games. This is an incredible accomplishment for this young lady as we go forward. Just to give you an idea, a chair like that for a top racer in the world is worth somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000.

We also, on the other end of that spectrum, are investing $500,000 annually in parasport equipment for children in communities and schools all across Canada. We are asking those communities to match our $500,000 contribution to make that a $1 million program. That has been running successfully for many years. Through the good graces of both the government and our corporate sponsors, we've been able to enhance participation of children with physical disabilities in sport.

Another interesting program is our “Soldier on” program that we have partnered with the Department of National Defence. These are soldiers, men and women who have come back from war, who are injured. We have a Paralympic training program that we operate in partnership with National Defence to assist these soldiers to get back into a sport or an active lifestyle. We have a few of these soldiers on our Paralympic teams.

I would specifically like to share with you that Paralympic sport is a vital expression of physicality for men and women who like to compete at the highest level of athletics. We are not going to London for a hug; we are going to London to win gold medals on behalf of Canada and Canadians. The resolve of these young men and women is extraordinary, I can assure you—I witness it every day. And they will proudly represent and inspire all Canadians in their competition in London, through their accomplishments and through what they are able to do based on their disability and their ability.

In wrapping up, I would like to say this is going to be a very special Paralympic Games, because London and England is the home of the Paralympic movement. The genesis of it was when British soldiers came home from war they started Paralympic Games activity to help rehabilitate soldiers. So it has a lot of meaning to the Paralympic world, and we are delighted to represent our country at these games.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Storgaard.

Now I'll move to Mr. Montopoli.

[Peter Montopoli, General Secretary, Canadian Soccer Association]

Thank you very much.

I am Peter Montopoli. I am the general secretary for the Canadian Soccer Association. It's a pleasure to be here, and thank you for having me here representing the sport with the largest number of participants in the country. I think many of you are aware of that. We see that every day and every evening, whether it be during the day or on weekends, when the parks, the communities, and the fields are being used to the max for our sport. We are proud to be the sport with the largest number of participants in our country, with 850,000 participants, and also very proud that 42% of our participants are female; that's 355,000 participants.

In terms of the global perspective and the number of female participants we have competing, we're third in the world behind the United States and Germany. I think it's a strong tribute to the sport, the people in the sport, and the communities that we have extensive participation by both males and females at the grassroots level: 44% of all youth play the sport of soccer in their community.

As you can see, from a participation point of view this sport is fully entrenched in communities across the country. I've been asked to speak here more in terms of the Olympics, but I can go on and on about many things about our sport. I'd love to on another day, but we will stick to the agenda: the women's national team program that has qualified for the summer Olympics for the second consecutive time, this time for 2012. Part of that success, and maybe part of the Canadian Soccer Association's, is that our communities are growing the sport, but a large part is due to the Government of Canada, through Sport Canada, through “Own the Podium”, in funding our elite team, our elite program, to be one of the best in the world. Certainly there is no lack of funding for this program, which has now reached one of the highest levels in the world.

We are currently ranked number seven in the world, but we have just come off winning the 2011 Pan American Games gold medal, a first for women's soccer for our country in the Pan American Games. Arguably we probably have at this point the best women's player in the world in Christine Sinclair. I think all of you have heard of her, seen her, and we're very excited about her participation in the summer Olympics. This past week we held a match in Moncton versus China. She scored on the last play of the match, in the last seconds of the match, for us to earn a victory over China, and now has positioned herself as the third-highest-scoring female in the history of international soccer, behind only two who are at the highest levels. We expect that when she has completed her career, which we hope has many more years to go, she will be the highest-scoring female in the history of women's soccer. I think that's quite a tribute, not only to her and the community where she grew up, but to our national team program. All of us as Canadians can be very proud of her success. She was a flag-bearer for Canada at the Pan American Games.

We introduced a new head coach to the program in September of 2011. He energized the program. He brought new beliefs, new tactics, and a new foundation of support for that program, which needed it at that point, so much so that we really believe that with the program he's devised and the commitment of the athletes we can win Canada's first team medal for a sport in the summer Olympics since 1936. That's our goal this summer, to be the team that wins that medal for Canada as a team in the summer Olympics for the first time since 1936. This is what he has instilled in the players. I was with the players this past weekend, and they still believe that; they see that.

The competition schedule we put together for them is second to none. We played the United States, and we'll play the United States once again, on June 30 in the United States. We've played Brazil, Sweden, France, all top-four clubs in the world, and competed very well. We've had some draws, lost one match, and beat the others. We are competing at the highest level possible in order to be successful as a country. As we enter the Olympic Games, we know we are the first competition. We start two days before the opening ceremonies. The sport of football takes a long time to complete at the Olympics.

We've seen it happen before, where a team that is successful and goes very far can actually take the country by storm and know that for two and a half weeks the country is following this one team. We believe we have the players and we have the coach to be successful and to reach the pinnacle of international success at the Olympic Games.

The team is currently training in Vancouver, as a residency program. They will be training in Europe prior to the Olympic Games to do everything they and we can do as a country to be successful.

I'd like to thank the government for their support, not only of the team and of the Canadian Soccer Association, but also in 2012, when we hosted the CONCACAF women's Olympic qualification tournament in Vancouver. The government supported us through the hosting program and we were able to fill the stadium, B.C. Place--160,000 spectators throughout the course of the tournament, 25,000 sell-out lower-bowl playing a championship match against the United States that was televised nationally. We need to be doing more and more of that. That's why on the heels of that success and the success of our women's team we bid for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2015, through the support of the federal government. We secured that bid in March of 2011, and now we are beginning to work on that competition.

We were pleased two weeks ago to be here in Parliament, in front of the Canada doors, with FIFA president Blatter and the Minister of State for Sport, to announce the official host cities for 2015 of Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, and Moncton. For the first time in our country--and I think this is one thing we really try to resonate in every speech we make--there is a major international competition that will be held coast to coast, from west coast to east coast and back, at the same time. It has never happened before in our country. It will never happen again. It's six provinces, six cities, at the same time. That's how a FIFA competition is held.

We are very excited at the prospect that every Canadian can touch and feel our sport, the women's FIFA World Cup, which is FIFA's second-largest competition. And it is the largest women's event of any kind in the world of any major sports, entertainment, arts, whatever you name--it's the largest. We have a lot of good things going on in the sport, but certainly without the support of the federal government it would be very, very difficult to achieve the goals and objectives we have set out.

We thank you for believing in the sport. We are the number one participation sport. We hope to continue to grow. We do need more fields. We'd like to work with the government on that, but at this point in time we believe our growth is at the highest level within our country, and our success is right on the edge of reaching that highest level of medals at the summer Olympic Games.

I'd like to thank the government, Sport Canada, and Own the Podium for your contributions, and for the opportunity to speak here today.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, sir.

Mr. MacAdam.

[Lane MacAdam, Director, Sport Excellence, Sport Canada, Department of Canadian Heritage]

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.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you.

Now we'll move to Mr. Brown.

[Graham Brown, Chief Executive Officer, Rugby Canada]

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, it's an honour to be here with you today to discuss Canada's preparations for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.

In 2009 the International Olympic Committee selected rugby and golf as two new sports into the Olympic family. Rugby is not actually in the 2012 Olympics—we're in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro—but that doesn't change the fact that we're equally as committed to winning a medal, both men's and women's sevens, in 2016.

We started that quest yesterday with a game on the Hill, where we invited politicians from all parties and media to prepare our athletes for 2016. Fortunately, we did that at the beginning of our preparation, and not at the end.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Graham Brown]

Rugby as a sport has a long history. Sevens rugby, albeit new, as a sport has been readily and aggressively adopted in Canada because of its Olympic involvement.

Our men are currently a top-12 country in the world. We are not supported by OTP, but our goal is to be supported by Own the Podium and to finish in the top ten. We are on the world circuit, so we represent Canada in ten tournaments around the world in a grand prix format. Our goal next year is to finish in the top ten in the men.

In terms of our women's rugby, we're currently ranked number one in the world. Of our last seven tournaments, we won five, and we finished second in one, third in the other. We are traditionally a strong rugby nation in women's fifteens. We believe our athletic base and the way in which we approach team sports in Canada will ensure that our women will win gold in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

Funding support for our rugby is multi-faceted. We believe in the business model where our funding comes from multiple sources and not just government. However, we wouldn't be able to field our men's and women's program without the support of the Government of Canada, whether it be through Sport Canada in their hosting program, through the athlete assistance program, or through the general sports support program that support all of our athletes in the development of rugby across Canada.

Own the Podium, where our women are supported, has provided an opportunity to take our women and present them on the world stage and to ensure, in my opinion, that they stay number one for the next five years. We hope that our relationship with Own the Podium will continue to grow and we'll be able to offer our women the absolute best possible chances of following Peter's gold—or silver or bronze—that he will win in London this summer.

In terms of all the colleagues we deal with in Canadian sport, I think we're all very fortunate to have the COC, Sport Canada, Own the Podium, and all the other collective bodies that support our coaching and officiating programs. They all work together in Canadian sport. Our real focus, however, is on our athletes.

Although we can always say that we've prepared enough, whether it be 2012 or 2016, the true measure of competing for Canada is allowing our athletes to compete without any distractions. I'm not sure whether we do that on a regular basis or whether we do that on a daily basis, but I can tell you that all of the sports preparing for the Olympic Games are trying to provide our athletes with the absolute best preparation, both in the lead-up to the Olympic Games and when they're done, when they come home from the Olympic Games, whether they win a medal or not.

I believe the support that we can give our athletes will be paramount as they represent Canada. Probably it's the greatest thrill they will have, representing their country, but it's also the greatest honour they'll ever have.

On behalf of Rugby Canada, although we're not in 2012, we are in 2016, and we hope this is the first step to preparing our athletes for both medal and podium in 2016.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you.

Mr. Jones.

[Chris Jones, Senior Leader, Sport Matters Group]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for the invitation to present here today.

The Sport Matters Group, SMG, represents the collective interests of sport and physical activity in Canada. We have been in existence for a decade and work to advance supportive public policies for the sport and physical activity sectors.

This past April we held an advocacy day on Parliament Hill, during which we met with 90 MPs and five ministers. Our theme that day was to promote the concept of “from playground to podium”. This theme is relevant to the inquiry your committee is presently undertaking in relation to the preparations for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer. My comments are confined to a discussion of the background context in which Canadian children and youth are provided with the necessary physical literacy, physical education, recreational access, and sporting opportunity, which will—over time, it is hoped—result in an expansive pool of high-performance athletes from which to draw.

Permit me to say that the sector is grateful for the foresight and enlightened thinking that led the federal government in its recent 2012 economic action plan to protect the funding allocated to core sport, high-performance sport, athletes assistance, the Canadian sports centres, and ParticipAction. Coupled with the decision to re-authorize funding for the Own the Podium agency in the aftermath of the 2010 Vancouver games, this lastest decision is to be commended, for it demonstrated recognition of the critical role the federal government plays in providing leadership to the entire sports system.

Additionally, the Canadian sport policy renewal discussions, in which I have been privileged to participate and in which the federal government has played a key role, have been an exemplary exercise in consultation, outreach, and cross-sectoral vision. The final document, which will be presented to FPT ministers later this month, has considerable strengths and virtues, and should serve as a strategic road map for sport in Canada over the next decade.

Notwithstanding these sound decisions in recent years, some of the key benchmarks in the sport world continue to move in the wrong direction.

Broader sport participation rates at the community level continue to stagnate. Private sector investments in sport, while still healthy, have been somewhat strained by the global economic downturn of 2009. One quarter of Canadian adults are obese. One quarter of Canadian children aged two to 17 are overweight or obese. And according to some, the economic costs of obesity rise as high as $7.1 billion. Data from several provinces suggest that community recreation infrastructure continues to be in need of repair or investment. The deficit has been estimated to be in the order of $15 billion. Some regions of the country, such as Alberta and the north, are considerably underserved by recreational and sporting infrastructure. Due to the influx of Canadians to Calgary, that city has a multi-billion-dollar need for new infrastructure.

Finally, 43% of Canadian schools fail to deliver on the primary outcomes of the physical education curriculum. Hence, many kids fail to develop the necessary building blocks of physical literacy, and are unable to pursue sport with any degree of confidence.

During our advocacy day on Parliament Hill, the sport, physical activity, and recreation sectors—supported, I should add, by the Heart and Stroke Foundation—had three main tasks. First, the federal government should continue to make a robust, sustainable, and predictable commitment to funding for both the core and high-performance sport systems. Secondly—this is more of a stretch target—2% of the $200 billion currently spent on conventional health care by all levels of government should be redirected towards physical activity, recreation, and sport as health promotion and prevention measures. Finally, the Government of Canada should, when fiscal circumstances permit, reinstate the recreational infrastructure program in order to remedy the multi-billion-dollar recreation and sport infrastructure gap.

Thank you for your time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Jones.

Mr. Lafontaine, go ahead.

[Pierre Lafontaine, Chief Executive Officer, Swimming Canada]

Mr. Moore, thank you for the opportunity.

Those guys are good. I actually don't have much left to say. They said it all.

My name is Pierre Lafontaine. I'm the national swimming coach and CEO of Swimming Canada, which is a different role from most other sporting organizations. Usually they have a CEO and they have a national coach.

I moved here seven years ago from Australia because the Canadian swimming program was in disarray. They hadn't won a medal at the Olympics for several Olympic Games. I'm Canadian from the suburbs of Montreal, but I left the country in the early 1980s. One of the main reasons I decided to come back was I felt that in Canada the world of winning was possible again. People talked about winning. It wasn't like everybody had the Kumbaya approach, that everybody has to be nice to everybody. Following my arrival, Alex Baumann came. Alex had been living in Brisbane and I had been living in Canberra.

My sport represents 100,000 members, and two million kids who take swimming lessons. Not that I'm competitive, but more kids swim than play soccer. Before coming here today, I was wondering how to dress. I thought maybe I would come in my Speedo, but I thought that might not be the best thing for all of us.

Before getting on the plane and moving from Australia, I remember my buddies and swim coaches in Australia saying, “What? You're going to Canada? They're so bad in swimming. What are you doing?” At the pool where I coached, I had 16 kids, and eight of them were Olympic gold medallists. When I came to Canada, the whole country hadn't won one gold medal since 1992. Even sometimes I'd wonder what I was doing.

Regardless of where I live in the world, Canada is where I come from, and it's always dear to my heart. Even when I was coaching in the U.S. and Australia, there was always a piece of me going, “Man, we have to be better”. Swimming is a summer sport for Canada. It's what we do. We go sailing and boating. We swim in backyard pools. We go to the lake. It is the Canadian thing to do in the summer.

To me, part of my discussion with you today is not just about the Olympics, but about the power of what the Olympics do to a nation. We should be the first nation in the world that actually talks about having zero drownings. You probably don't know, but over 600 kids a year drown in Canada. Every one of them is somebody's daughter or son. I would hate to think that we don't apply ourselves to something as preventable as drowning, that we don't fight like crazy to make sure that every child in Canada knows how to swim, because that's how people enjoy Canada in the summer.

When I arrived here in 2005 we started a new strategic plan. Our plan was to have a family-friendly organization and to create an environment where every kid is safe, where there's respect for each other, where there's integrity within the program, where there's commitment and accountability on the part of the coaches, kids, and parents.

All of you know there are no children's sports without volunteers. If it weren't for volunteers in this country, we wouldn't have sports. Not long ago, in one of the budgets the government added a tax credit for volunteer firefighters. I would beg you to consider finding ways to recognize our volunteers across the nation who help with our youth program. I do believe that Own the Podium actually starts in all the municipalities. That's where the dream of ever being on the podium at the Olympics or the Paralympics begins.

We made our selection for the Olympic team in Montreal at the Olympic pool. We've been doing it since I've been back. The Olympic pool is our history. It's where people dream and great things happen for Canada. It hurt me throughout the 2010 Olympics when people said that we won our first gold medals ever on Canadian soil at our Olympic Games. I can tell you that if it weren't for the drugged East Germans in 1976, your swimmers alone would have won four gold medals. We're still suffering, and some of these kids are still suffering today because of that concept.

Your swimming team was also the first to have Olympic and Paralympic trials together. These kids are in the same pool. They train in the same pool. They're the same family. They are coached by the same coaches. It was a really great success. We had over 800 kids from around the country, over 5,000 spectators who watched it on TV, close to 100,000 on webcasting. Your team is now composed of 31 swimmers: 13 males, 18 females. We're ranked at anywhere between 10th and 12th at the Olympic Games.

I want to talk to you a little bit about what we've done during the last four years, just to prepare you for where we're going. We've planned three medals—that was our goal in 2005—and to create an environment to allow us to have three medals. That means a program for coaches, a program for clubs, a program for developing officials, and so on.

Also, let me just talk to you about the last four months. It's been quite exciting. We had a camp in Arizona. We brought the whole team. We brought sports psychologists, nutritionists, and so on. We also partnered with the Cirque du Soleil. The reason we partnered with the Cirque du Soleil is that it's one of the greatest organizations in the world in their art. They're great athletes. I approached them and I said I wanted to associate my organization with the best in the world and the best Canadians. They were so excited to work with us.

We ended up in Las Vegas in September for five shows, and our swimmers trained with their artists. Then when we came back for the Olympic trials, the next day we went to the new show in Montreal and trained with them for a day, and basically shared what it was about being the greatest in the world. That was really exciting for us.

Our camp will be in Italy prior to the Olympic Games. We're going to spend two weeks in Italy. The reason we're going there is I just felt that if we go to the British Isles, there's going to be so much hype. It's just too much. So we're going to stay in a little town of 7,000 people. The mayor of the town loves swimming. He put a 50-metre pool in the middle of this little village. It's going to be nice in Sardinia.

The reason I'm telling you this is because I believe the power of the sport is to inspire Canadians. It's to make every single child think, “My goodness, it's amazing to be Canadian”, number one, and that in fitness, the role of a child or the job of a child is to play. I strongly believe that part of our role here is to create an environment where every kid wants to do something. It doesn't have to be swimming—I'd love that. Having 10 million kids who swim would be great. Then they'd get so hot in soccer that they'd have to come to swim. That's why it's really important that we teach swimming to these kids.

I also believe that the power of teams and the power of sport is how we could use sport in schools to engage kids. I think our boys are having trouble in school. It's certainly one of the biggest tools to engage boys in school. I can tell you, I have two boys, and if it weren't for sports, I'm not sure they'd still be in school. I'm a big fan of sport in school and what it does to them in terms of building everything, which is learning to lose, learning to win, being a teammate, being a proud Canadian.

At the end, for me, it's about building dreams for Canadians and using our power to do that.

For you to understand the growth of the Olympic movement, in 1988 in my sport there were 80 countries. This year 185 countries are competing in swimming. It's something like 205 in track and field.

So it doesn't get any easier. It gets harder and harder. I could tell you that more and more governments around the world are using sport as a platform to sell what they do. The power that we have in our medals is what the medals will do post-Olympic Games to engage Canadians, to engage every child in the country.

I couldn't do it without the Government of Canada. I know we've all said this, but I keep telling you, there's no way we could do it without Sport Canada, Own the Podium, COC, the CPC. Even the messaging that's been taken out there now with you—I'm talking about what the government's saying—we believe in sport and the power of sport. We're going to keep funding this. What it did to our athletes was it made them think, “Wow, they believe in us. So if it's to be, it's up to me.” I think it was a great message.

I could tell you that my swimmers around the country are excited to represent you. Like Peter, they're not going there to participate. They want to go there and make you proud. They want to be there to engage the 40,000 swimmers we have in our swim club, the 1.5 million kids in our swimming lessons. That's why they do it. They do it for themselves too. I think at the end the fun thing is they want to get the tattoo of the maple leaf on their hearts. That's one of the great things swimmers want to do.

We can't do it without TV. We can't do it without great ethics in this country against drugs. I think we have to fight like hell—excuse the expression—to make sure we keep clean sports. We have problems with banned coaches who are still coaching on pool decks, or soccer fields, or hockey arenas. We have to do everything we can to stop that.

I'm going to close up with a few comments about having to find ways to build great after-school programs. That's where it all starts. That's where the kids in the schools need to be engaged.

I think the message that we should be and can be the fittest nation in the world is what we're about. I'm telling you that if you pass those messages to us over here, we'll do it for you. But we need the vision to be creative out there and say we deserve to be the fittest nation, no different from our children deserving the best school system in the world. There's no reason we're not the fittest nation in the world.

Through Mr. John Weston, on Saturday we started the first Health and Fitness Day in Canada, where we've pushed the municipalities to open every facility in their community for free on the first Saturday of June to promote healthy living and active living. Sports Day in Canada, September 29, is another great way to promote sport in Canada.

I would love to challenge each one of you. Terry Fox Day, which I think is September 16 or 17 this year, is an icon. I've lived around the world; he's an icon around the world. Almost a thousand races happen around the world—I was in Australia—and it brings Canadians together. I would love to think that we could get 308 MPs and 105 senators to run the Terry Fox Run and pass the message that fitness is important: be a healthy Canadian; life is important for Canada.

I'm going to finish with this. Thursday mornings I run swimming lessons for MPs at the Chateau Laurier, from 6:45 to 7:30. I've got about 15 of you who show up. Today I brought swim caps for every one of you. When we're done here, you can come and get the swim caps, and I expect you to be there. You don't have to wear Speedos. I'll provide goggles.

Thank you very much.

Actually, Ms. Joy Smith—I think from Winnipeg—came for the first time eight weeks ago. She hadn't swum in her life. Her brother had drowned. She learned to swim in 45 minutes and swam a lap at the Chateau Laurier. That was probably one of the greatest days—after 40 years of working with swimmers—one of the nicest days of my life for why I do what I do. It's to change lives and influence people to make great choices in their lives.

Thanks. Go, Canada, go.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Lafontaine.

Thank you to our witnesses.

Now we'll move into our time for question and answer. We'll start with Mr. Young, for seven minutes.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Welcome, everyone. Thank you for coming here today.

I'd like to ask Mr. Montopoli a question. I'm told that my town of Oakville has the highest number of coaches and players in Canada playing soccer, which is 12,000 young people and then coaches. I'm wondering how important these farm teams across Canada are in building your winning women's team. That is like the soccer movement. What is the connection? How important is it to have that?

[Peter Montopoli]

First off, I compliment you on being the largest club in North America.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Oh, we're the largest in North America.

[Peter Montopoli]

Compliments to you and your city for having the vision on how to do it correctly.

It's very wise of you to ask that question, because two of the players from your club are on our women's national team program. They've come up through the system through excellent volunteers and administrators and, more importantly, through excellent coaching programs that you've implemented in your club. I think your city and your club has probably done the best job in Canada promoting the sport and how to do it correctly from an infrastructure perspective, which is a key component in terms of usage of all the fields in your city and having that under the umbrella of the Oakville Soccer Club, versus many multiple clubs. Through that, the control of the system and programs has been uniform throughout, allowing players to understand what's required to be a national team player.

I applaud your city and the work you've done to provide excellent players, both on the men's and women's teams, but especially on the women's side, where we count on your club to produce those players.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Thank you.

We heard from Mr. Jones that a key health problem for Canadians, in particular young Canadians, is obesity. The elephant in the room, is these wonderfully engaging video games that create couch potatoes, whereas it would be much healthier for our young people to be out playing a sport.

You said 44% of all youth play soccer, which is an amazing number. Could you comment on what our young people get out of soccer in relation to their health, but also other skills and disciplines?

[Peter Montopoli]

Certainly. Thank you.

Really, the number one skill and discipline is being part of a team, and leadership skills, team skills, friendships, and the opportunity in our sport where it's not about one player, one focus. In my presentation I talked about the best player in the world, and we should all be proud of that, but it's about a team and a team concept. It's not about yourself.

I think those other life skills are taught through many of the sports. I guess I'm more familiar with our sport, more passionate about it, where you're part of a team to be successful; you're not that one individual to be successful. So relying on your teammates, being a competitor and a leader, and you're part of a team to achieve greater success is probably what you're learning through our sport.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Storgaard, the highest level of achievement at the Olympics and Paralympics is gold, but gold is really a symbol, I think, and it has a hidden meaning. That is what everybody strives to achieve, sort of what they learned along the way. I wonder if you could comment on what it does for Paralympic athletes to work toward achieving gold.

[Henry Storgaard]

Thank you very much for that question.

You're absolutely right: it's the journey, not the gold medal. I think that restores an individual's sense of pride, confidence, and achievement. To reflect on what Peter just said, that ability to be part of a team, to compete, to be the best in the world, all these things are vital to our athletes and to young children who have disabilities.

We have research that identifies that these children are isolated from society, in large part. They don't have as many friends, nowhere near as many friends as other kids, so it's vital for them to participate in sport, to have all those experiences that everybody else has in sport.

Our athletes are an incredible inspiration for all Canadians. They visit schools throughout the country, they speak at service clubs, and they are so proud to give back.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

That's helpful, thank you.

Mr. Lafontaine, could you comment on how training in swimming and achievements transfers those skills and disciplines to other aspects of someone's life in other areas of endeavour? We often see how star athletes end up being achievers in whatever they do in life. Can you comment on the skills transfer?

[Pierre Lafontaine]

Great question.

I'm sure very few parents will ever put their kids in sports to get to the Olympic Games. They do it to build all these great skills that you guys have brought. But what I find is that these kids are often very goal-oriented, because that's one of the concepts: we're going there in three weeks, six months, two years.

I think they've also learned to desire issues such as being a great team player. You look at the leaders within their area—for me in my sport, there are six lanes in a pool, and there's always the concept of concentration, attention to skills, attention to details—and they're getting ready long-term as competitions approach.

I think there are so many great qualities that these kids have, but one of the main ones is they're forced to plan their school work, they're forced to plan their day-to-day organization. So if they swim at 5:30 in the morning, they have to make their lunch the night before, and they have to do their homework. They have to do so many things that average kids don't do. Athletes often have a higher GPA at university than the average student. On top of that, they represent their schools with great pride.

One of the biggest challenges we have when we get to that point is that we have a lot of Canadian kids who go to U.S. colleges. In my sport, 150 of my best swimmers go to the NCAA system. So we have to build our CIS college system where they want to stay in Canada and they want the pride to be in a Canadian university. They get wooed by scholarships.

I can tell you that most great Canadians who compete at the international level for Canada, and they do well in Canada, have stayed in Canada through the college system. They go to Canadian universities. For me, there hasn't been a Canadian who won a gold medal for Canada who competed in the U.S. in terms of college systems. So I think the quality we're looking for in terms of planning and long-term thinking is the reason we put our kids into sports.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Young.

Mr. Nantel.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses for making their presentations.

I would like to come back to the comments made by Mr. Montopoli and Mr. Jones, who talked about the importance of municipal infrastructure, and of concrete and ongoing support for families and young people. I also have a question for Mr. MacAdam.

Last weekend, I attended a classic tournament organized by the Express soccer club, from Boucherville. Almost 100 teams of young amateurs participated. The technical director of the Association régionale de soccer de la Rive-Sud, Valmie Ouellet, came up to me to point out an eight-year-old girl wearing number 9. She told me that the girl had been noticed, and she was supposed to join a workshop. I did not really understand. It all seemed very advanced. Ms. Ouellet had noticed a special ability in that girl, probably even in a specific position—for instance, as a left winger.

Mr. MacAdam, are the federal envelopes for supporting local sporting initiatives significant?

[Lane MacAdam]

Thank you, Mr. Nantel.

Clearly, the federal contribution is mostly aimed at national activities, through national federations. However, as Mr. Montopoli would probably confirm, his mandate does not consist only in developing the national team and our Olympic teams. Earlier, we talked about the local team, in Oakville, which produces thousands of young athletes. Those kinds of clubs help athletes get noticed. Young athletes with the talent and abilities needed to reach higher levels are identified. I hope that they receive funding and support, first at the local level, and then at the provincial level. Eventually, they are recognized by the junior national team; they undergo better training, participate in training camps and international competitions and, some day, join the national team.

The development system varies slightly from one sport to another. You have surely heard about the long-term athlete development model, which applies to every sport and helps determine how skilled athletes must be in order to compete at higher levels.

When I started playing soccer, at 10, we played on a large field. Over the course of a 90-minute match, we would touch the ball for about three minutes. However, things are completely different nowadays. The field has been adapted for four-on-four matches. Heavy emphasis is placed on skill development to help those young people get noticed and allow the ones with the required talent and interest to compete for Canada internationally.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you.

There is no doubt that federal support is necessary.

I would like to yield the floor to my colleague Matthew Dubé, who has a question about that.

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

I want to begin by thanking you for joining us. I also want to congratulate you on the accomplishments you have highlighted.

Several of you have talked about issues related to youth activity, volunteering, and so on. I have my own little theory about that. I think that we may be victims of our own success, in the sense that young people are increasingly aware of the possibility to succeed. Previous successes result in much higher standards, and information dissemination makes it possible to watch performances much more easily than in the past. In particular, there is the whole YouTube phenomenon.

With that in mind, it may be important to create programs—especially at the local level—that will be ongoing and produce higher-calibre Olympic athletes. When I coached soccer and hockey teams, I often noticed that young people would quit because the programs were—let's be honest—kind of ill-conceived. Measures for achieving success were non-existent, coaches were not well-trained, and so on.

My question is for everyone. How can those programs be improved? Even though federal envelopes are mostly intended for national use, I think that they should still have a local component, so that lives in our communities can be improved and we can provide you with high-calibre athletes in preparation for the Olympic Games.

Mr. Jones?

[Chris Jones]

That's a good question. I think I have two responses. First, there is now a movement that's gaining attraction and a foothold in Canada, and that's the Canadian sport for life movement. It is attempting to teach parents and coaches about the sort of natural progression of a young athlete who in the first year should have a focus on fun, participation, and structured kind of play, and then over time to impart certain technical skills.

I think, though, the issue all governments need to grapple with at some point is the fact that in our school system there aren't enough qualified physical educators teaching sports. What we have are generalists. English and science teachers are teaching sport and physical activity to kids. I think the legacy of that—and we have heard this from various national sport organizations—is we have national sports organizations teaching 18-year-olds remedial athletic skills such as jumping, throwing, catching, that kind of stuff. That's because there's been a failure in the system lower down in the school system. I know that's not a federal jurisdiction, but I think that is an issue we're going to need to grapple with over time.

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

Mr. Lafontaine, you talked about a tax credit for volunteers who coach, and I think that's a worthwhile suggestion. To come back to what I wanted to point out earlier, that kind of support is very important. Community support begins there and continues until athletes reach your level.

Could you tell us more about that? It's an interesting idea that would help us maintain our Olympic Games success.

[Pierre Lafontaine]

There are several points in all that. First, recognizing volunteers is very important. In 2004, the Howard government, in Australia, said that Canada and the United States had conducted studies that pointed to a major obesity problem. They said that Australia had the same problem. Within three weeks, that government invested an additional $100 million in after-school programs. In the first year, those programs had an impact on 180,000 young people. Eighty-five per cent of young people had never been involved in organized sports before that. They found a way to make it work in schools.

For all of us, we started in grade school. That's where we played soccer in the gym and so on.

That's one of the key points. The relationship between national and provincial federations is very important. It's not just a matter of having an Olympic program and all that. As Mr. Jones pointed out, we have to have a well-planned program. That way, when a four-year-old child starts playing soccer, what they learn from their coach will be in line with what major athletes do. Those aspects are all interrelated.

The Coaching Association of Canada works very hard on reassessing the coaching program and making it much more adapted to today's technology, so that people from Gander, Newfoundland, or Fort St. John, British Columbia, can have access to coaching courses just as easily as people living in Toronto or in Montreal.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you.

Mr. Simms, for seven minutes.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Thank you.

I'm going to follow from that line of questioning. I want to talk about something that was said in the presentation. I think Mr. Lafontaine mentioned it—owning in the municipalities—and also Mr. Jones. I've always thought, yes, the municipalities should also own their athletes and should be proud to take credit for what they've done.

For example, back in the late sixties there was a massive infrastructure program around the centennial celebrations, the 100-year celebrations, which I'm sure you're familiar with.

[A voice]

[Inaudible--Editor].

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Yes, exactly. There were a lot of arenas built—hockey arenas especially.

One of the hockey players involved in a stadium in a town called Bonavista was Michael Ryder. You talk about paying dividends.... They built this stadium many years ago, and just last year the Stanley Cup was paraded through that particular stadium. So it pays back in a way that's quite profound. Also, I think that when it comes to the Alex Baumanns of the world and the Victor Davises of the world, it also pays off in the local pools.

You brought up the rink program, which I think is something we should give serious consideration to resurrecting on a grander scale, because I do believe that the dividends are tremendous. So what you do is you have the municipalities in charge of their recreation, but with help about the infrastructure, because the smallest of the communities have a hard time leveraging this money to help to create.... Now, obviously not every community is going to have a 50-metre pool, but they can certainly have a pretty good soccer pitch, or they can have a pool where people can learn the basics and go from there to get them through college and maybe into the Olympics.

I was wondering about this. Do you think the smaller municipalities are crying for this once more?

[Chris Jones]

I think it's our sense that it was an extremely popular initiative that had a lot of mayors in the queue and a lot of projects that were funded, and yet it probably only scratched the surface. In the depths, it is still in the order of about $15 billion. In some cases it's extremely pronounced because of demographic shifts and the arrival of new Canadians and so on.

One thing I think we saw in the Canadian sport policy process is that we now need to rationalize our resources so that maybe we create what are called multi-sport complexes, rather like the Germans do, where you're going to put a number of facilities together in one place. You might have a rugby training pitch, an arena, and an indoor synthetic field. If an athlete shows an aptitude at a certain age and the coaches decide that maybe that kid could do another sport, you could easily move him, because the coaches would be there—the athletic trainers—and I think that particular model has some virtues we need to look at.

As to the program, I think it has a lot of merit, and when circumstances permit, we should look at re-authorizing it.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

So creating these plays with the flexibility and with the infrastructure that allows flexibility within the smaller communities--I totally agree.

I want to jump topics now and get to rugby. Pardon my ignorance on the sport of rugby, but is there a professional league on a grander scale that we participate in as Canadian athletes?

[Graham Brown]

There is professional rugby around the world, but not in North America, so the majority of our particular men's national team players do play over in the U.K.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Okay. Now, can we expect to see these athletes in the Olympics, the top players in the world...?

[Graham Brown]

Yes. All of our athletes who go overseas to play all come back when we ask them to play for Canada. There's no problem.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Okay. The professional athletes certainly are into the Olympics for rugby.

[Graham Brown]

Yes.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

All right. So New Zealand stands a good chance of getting a medal, or South Africa, these nations—

[Graham Brown]

And so does Canada.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Yes.

Because in hockey, let's face it, right now what supplants on the level of a World Cup of soccer is really the hockey gold medal. I think that's safe to say. It sounds like rugby could be the same. But what about for soccer now? We're not necessarily at that level, are we?

[Peter Montopoli]

In terms of our best players playing on our men's and women's teams, absolutely 100%. In terms of the competitive level, again, on the women's side, we are second-best in CONCACAF, which is our region of North America, Central America and the Caribbean countries. We're just behind the United States, which has been the number one country for the last 15 years and running. We have competed with them.

On the men's side.... And I'm glad Pierre brought this up, because while swimming, track, and Olympics have a large majority of countries, nobody competes with FIFA. FIFA has 209 countries participating. It's the largest governing body in the world. So we are competing against 208 countries, and to be at the top level is a proposition that's bit more difficult. We are starting our qualification this Friday for the men's World Cup, so we are halfway through the process in terms of qualification—

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Sorry to interrupt, but I don't have a lot of time. When you sit down here by yourself, they don't afford you a lot of time.

I want to talk about the role of professionalism in the sense of the money it brings. Let's face it, the money we put into development associations for hockey simply because of the Canadian hockey team in the Olympics is phenomenal. For soccer it might not be at that level, but for rugby it could be much the same.

Maybe this is a question for Mr. MacAdam. How do you mesh the amount of money that can be brought into the development associations when it comes to hockey, as opposed to something like swimming or maybe something a little more down the line, we'll say—no offence to this sport—fencing or something like that? Obviously they cannot garner the amount of commercial interest that other sports can.

Go ahead.

[Lane MacAdam]

Thank you for your question.

Through the federal funding envelopes there are two yardsticks we use to assess the investments that go into the various national sports that we fund. There are about 55 national federations that are financially supported by the federal government. We have a policy tool called the sport funding and accountability framework, which assesses each sport based on its membership, the pan-Canadian nature of the sport, its international success. So there is a fairly objective tool that differentiates between one sport—

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

That's what I want to get to. It is quite objective. Maybe I can—

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

You're out of time, Mr. Simms. These are seven-minute rounds, and that's seven minutes. That's how it works.

Mr. Armstrong.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank you all for your presentations. I don't quite know where to start, but I think I'll start here.

I was very pleased in the last couple of months to see that Steve Nash has joined our national men's basketball program at an administrative level. I think having him return to Canada and support us and help us out is going to be a great addition to our sport in Canada.

When he was in high school he played rugby, soccer, and basketball, and he played those sports until he graduated high school. There's great pressure on young athletes who show any promise or any talent in any sport to focus on that sport, leaving the other sports. I'm a person who believes that you should try to play as many sports for as long as you can, at least until you start high school. But there is great pressure and competition among coaches and community groups to try to draw the best talent, because many times they're the best athletes in all sports, particularly in smaller communities.

I'm just wondering, Mr. Jones, what are you thoughts on that issue?

[Chris Jones]

Interestingly enough, Steve Nash went to the same high school I went to in Victoria, which is Mount Douglas High School, and then went on to another local school, St. Michaels University School.

We've heard Wayne Gretzky say this as well in the past. He believed that you should play multiple sports while you're young and develop a lot of different skill sets. Now there is a whole philosophy around long-term athlete development, which says there are optimum stages and periods when you want to begin to specialize that athlete if they have potential. So I think there is some science now that would suggest there are early specialization sports and later specialization sports.

I guess what you're referring to is the professionalization of children's amateur sport, and there are some regrettable sides to that. We see that in sport. We see that maybe in some hockey arenas at times, where overly enthusiastic parents are getting on the backs of the referees or the players, and that can turn some kids off. So I think there are some issues, and I think the sport policy process has been about educating parents and coaches and volunteers to say that it's about skill acquisition; it's about fun; it's about esprit de corps; it's about a lot of things.

Our general view is that when sport is done properly, it builds social capital, and it enhances the local community. After all, as Peter would know, in an era when so many of us are sitting in front of computer screens on a summer's evening, when parents meet on the sidelines and they sit and they talk, that builds social capital. They meet at pools; they meet at a lot of places. So I think that overall it's a healthy development, but there are those extremes where I think maybe we do specialize a bit too early.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

I said two days ago, at our last meeting, that in Canada we have mostly volunteer coaches. Primarily when young people are coming up and they join a sport for the first time, it's a volunteer who is coaching them, such as a parent in the organization. We do have training programs for coaches. The volunteer coach is something we have to treasure in Canada.

In the United States, many times it's more professional, and the coaches are paid at least a stipend, whereas in Canada that doesn't happen very often.

You have to have a well-trained and certified volunteer coach. Then you need equipment, and you need a facility. If you have those three things, you can usually develop a pretty good program without a lot of high registration fees. Registration fees are definitely a hurdle to get over to participate at a high level, or just to stay in shape, particularly for children from less prosperous homes.

If you have those three things—the volunteer coach, the facilities, and the equipment—then the registration fees can stay low, and you can broaden that net at the bottom. What all of you have kind of touched on is that it is kind of this inverted pyramid. You want to get that base of people participating as large as possible. Then you focus on elite development as they move up that pyramid.

Having that base as wide as possible is also something the federal, provincial, and municipal governments should be supporting, because that is what's going to save us money in health care costs later on. Have people all start early, and try to open the door to everyone to involve as many as possible. Focus not just on elite development but actually have that bottom of the pyramid as broad as possible.

Am I accurate in saying that you are all in support of that model?

Maybe we'll start with Mr. MacAdam.

[Lane MacAdam]

Yes, I would suggest that you look at the underpinnings of the long-term athlete development models pioneered by the Government of Canada so that each sport has a single song sheet that understands the various aspects of sport development within the sport. Whether it's a late-development sport, such as rowing or cross-country skiing, versus an early-development sport, such as gymnastics, they're all going to look a little different in terms of how you identify athletes, what kinds of skills you provide to the athletes, what kind of training you have, and what kinds of qualifications you need for the coaches at various levels. It all starts there.

There is no question that the Government of Canada is doing some work to ensure that there is cohesion around who does what so that there is no duplication. There's no question that there are certainly gaps. But certainly efforts over the last ten years, during the first phase of the Canadian sport policy process, have been trying to ensure better coordination among levels of government to identify those gaps and ensure that efforts are made to try to close them. And we are trying to make sure that we have qualified coaches training in those facilities and supporting those athletes in those facilities.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Thank you.

I want to ask Mr. Lafontaine one last question.

Australia's system is well respected among sporting communities. The system they have in Australia covers more than one sport. It is not just swimming, but other sports as well. Are they doing a better job, and if they are, how are they doing in casting this broad net and involving more people at a younger age? What are they doing that we're not that we could focus on?

[Pierre Lafontaine]

That's a great question.

In the 1976 Olympics, if I remember the numbers well, Australia won only three medals. In 1979 a federal MP stood up in the House and said that it was un-Australian not to be a powerhouse in sport for any Australian. So they built the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, which is where I ended up working for several years. Basically, it became a vision from the top down, and schools embarked on it, and all of a sudden, because of that, so many other things fell into place. A company called Telstra actually would give any of their employees who were volunteers two paid hours out of their 40-hour week to coach little kids soccer or whatever. It became a national vision, and everything else fell into place.

I can tell you that my kids had mandated physical education all the way through high school. I think it is one of the major issues, especially for girls, because often programs are left to choice. A lot of girls don't want to get sweaty in high school, so the habits of fitness for girls are not as good. I think we have to work on that.

I know that education is a provincial program, but I also believe that people will embark on it if the vision is created for a nation.

To go back to the Australian model, another aspect is that they are 20 years ahead of us, and we're eating away at it two years at a time to get closer to them. The key is not to just get closer to them but to get much better than they are. Our coaching education system is the best in the world, but we just don't have enough people to coach the coaches.

I live in Chelsea, just north of here. We have 1,000 kids, out of 7,000 people, who play soccer. We can't find enough coaches and dads and moms. If I happen to drive by the soccer field, they'll lasso me in to coach soccer, and I know nothing about soccer. That's how desperate some of them are, including for hockey. We have to work at building the base.

The other aspect would be to entice universities to have programs in physical education that specialize in coaching, not just in physical education, for example. There are only a few universities in Canada that do that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Armstrong.

Mr. Dubé.

Now we're into five-minute rounds.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I have a question for Mr. Storgaard about parasports and the Paralympic Games. Over the weekend, in my constituency, I had an opportunity to spend an afternoon with people from the Association des personnes handicapées de la Vallée-du-Richelieu, Richelieu Valley association for the disabled. During that afternoon, they let us try out the equipment used by athletes, such as the hockey sledge. That kind of equipment is fairly difficult to use, as it turns out. It's really very demanding, especially on the upper body. The equipment and the technology are evolving. You talked a bit about that issue when you mentioned wheelchairs, for instance. That's constantly evolving.

That being said, what do you think about maintaining our progress? You talked about certain measures for supporting parasports and their development. Those sports have a lot of positive consequences. Things are constantly changing. We are still not at a point where anyone with a disability can easily participate in activities. What more can be done to keep those fine initiatives going?

[Henry Storgaard]

Thank you for that question.

As a matter of fact, in Quebec, at the University of Sherbrooke, we have researchers and research facilities helping to develop equipment for Paralympic athletes or athletes with disabilities. We're working very diligently, not only at the University of Sherbrooke but also with different universities across the country, on research and innovation that allows athletes with disabilities to participate, and to participate at optimum levels.

It is very challenging. I don't know if anybody here has tried to get into one of the sledges used in playing sledge hockey. It's very low to the ice. It's not easy. It's challenging. And we have wheelchair rugby. As well, these are like chariots from Roman times. A tremendous amount of innovation and research is going on.

In terms of what else we can do, it really depends on financial resources in terms of focusing on that, and obviously working with more universities, more research organizations to help these people. We've seen a good example. Athlete Oscar Pistorius from South Africa is a blade runner. He has two large blades. He's a double amputee. He's now trying to qualify for the Olympics. I think he has one event left over the next couple of weeks to see if he can be the first double amputee to do that.

I think it has great benefit. All the wheelchairs being built will benefit the general public and society.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but four million Canadians have physical disabilities.

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

As my time is limited, I have to interrupt you. I am sorry.

That being said, I think that innovation is a key aspect. You mentioned the price of a wheelchair. So we see that disabled people face some financial barriers, especially for the reasons you mentioned, such as social isolation. Unfortunately, that means some of them have to live with lower incomes. Are there any initiatives to encourage participation in sports, so as to make it more affordable?

[Henry Storgaard]

That chair was an example of someone competing at the top of the elite sport at the world-class level. We are working with suppliers across the country, with corporate sponsors, and with government support, to help with the accessibility to further equipment for children in schools, community centres. That's going on right now. These are much more affordable for an average family in terms of access.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Dubé.

Ms. Grewal, go ahead.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

Welcome, and thank you for your time and your presentation as well.

I think I can speak for everyone present when I say how proud I was of our Canadian athletes during the Vancouver Winter Olympics. As a B.C. MP, I found it particularly satisfying to witness so close at hand our athletes showing to the world that we are home to many of the world's top athletes.

Historically, we know that Canada cannot expect to take in such a large medal haul during the summer games. Still, I know that our athletes will make us proud.

My question concerns Own the Podium. This important program is helping to build a world-class national sport system, one that will help Canadian athletes succeed at the highest level. To your knowledge, how is the Own the Podium program assisting our athletes, and will it make a difference to the results we see this summer in London? Any one of you can answer that.

[Lane MacAdam]

The Government of Canada is a proud and founding partner in the Own the Podium initiative, which began, as you point out, in the lead-up to the Vancouver games. It has recently been incorporated as a national non-profit corporation, so there's a strong commitment to ensure its continuity.

The Government of Canada is the largest funding provider of the resources Own the Podium makes recommendations against. About 85% of the funding that Own the Podium recommends is actually from the tax base. I know colleagues around the table could speak to the important impact that those funding envelopes have provided in the preparations for both Vancouver and London. The Government of Canada sees that this is an important initiative to continue, based on the very successful track record we have so far, and we're optimistic that we'll achieve our goals in London as well.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

How many Paralympic athletes will Canada send to the Paralympic Games in London?

[Henry Storgaard]

We will proudly send 150 athletes to London.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

I see.

As noted in the Department of Canadian Heritage's report on plans and priorities for 2012–13, the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee, in collaboration with the Own the Podium initiative and Sports Canada, are aiming for a top 12 finish in total medals at the 2012 Olympic Games and a top eight finish in gold medals at the Paralympic Games. How confident are you that Canada will reach these goals?

[Lane MacAdam]

As I mentioned, the trajectory on the summer side is certainly improving. Our medal tallies, from Sydney, from Athens, from Beijing, are all on an upswing. We are optimistic that the recent additional investment in summer sport will pay dividends. As you mentioned, the top 12 is the target. That will probably require 20 to 25 medals on the Olympics side. It's difficult to say exactly. On the Paralympics side, we're probably looking at 35 to 45 medals. Again, depending on the distribution of medals from other countries, a top eight finish is ambitious but achievable.

The Paralympic side—and Henry can comment on this too—is becoming much more competitive. Canada was an early entrant into the Paralympic sport world, but more countries are investing more, and there's much more competition for those scarce medals. It certainly won't be easy for us in London, but we believe our athletes are well prepared to take that challenge on.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Have preparations for these Paralympic Games been different from those of earlier games?

[Lane MacAdam]

Henry, maybe you can jump in here.

I think the investment in the athletes and programs, the coaching, the training competition, the sports science and medicine—all these things are at an all-time high. There is more sophistication in the planning and preparation for these athletes. As I mentioned earlier, we had one athlete win 10% of our medals in Beijing. She has now retired. Unfortunately, the depth of field in some of these Paralympic events is not as great as it might be in able-bodied sports.

I know that's a challenge Henry and his colleagues are working on, to try to encourage as many young Canadians as would be interested in participating in Paralympic sport across both winter and summer games, but it is certainly a challenge. Some of these athletes come to the sport quite late in life, through tragic accidents or through coming back from war-torn areas, etc. So it's a little more difficult to have that pipeline of athletes to supply our future national teams, but we're feeling quite confident that we're very prepared for London.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mrs. Grewal.

Ms. Sitsabaiesan.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to all of you for joining us today.

Last week the British high commissioner was here talking about the London games, and the key underpinning he talked about was the importance of the legacy and what the games mean beyond the games. I guess my question is to Mr. MacAdam, or whoever else would like to add.

What is it that we're doing to prepare for that legacy? What is that legacy? This of course is addressing the Pan Am Games, because I know they're being hosted in Toronto. They are on a smaller scale than the Olympics would be, but still important to communities like mine in Scarborough. What are we doing to build that legacy? What is our legacy going to be? Are we focusing on building in our communities and investing in our local communities around where the games are to be held? For instance, we spoke earlier and you mentioned the pool that's being built in Scarborough. It's great. What are we doing to build the communities or invest in the communities around the Pan Am Games?

[Lane MacAdam]

Thank you for your question.

Certainly the Pan Am Games are an exciting opportunity for Canada to continue its strong tradition of hosting major multi-sport events. Certainly we've seen the impact that legacies will have. You will know that in our winter programs a lot of the athletes who succeeded in Vancouver trained on the facilities we built 22 years ago in Calgary. Through some foresight of early planners then, there were legacy funds put in place to ensure that those facilities would continue to operate and not be a burden and not become white elephants afterwards.

We've certainly learned from that. We've certainly learned from other major events, whether it's the Victoria Commonwealth Games or the games in Vancouver, where there are legacy funds in place. About $400 million of public investment are going into creating facilities for the games at all levels. There are the three key legacy facilities that are being planned by the Government of Canada that include the Scarborough swimming and aquatic centre, the velodrome in Milton, and an athletic facility at York University. There is also a plan in place to ensure that there is a robust legacy fund in place that will actually serve to help with the programming and operating costs of those facilities post-games.

I would also like to point out that we don't have the luxury in Canada of having these dedicated facilities only for high-performance sport. They must serve other purposes. So the aquatic centre in Scarborough is a perfect example where it will serve a growing community need in the area that is growing by leaps and bounds in terms of population. It will also serve the growing university community.

The combination of local, university, and high-performance use will make this facility very vibrant in the community and hopefully will allow swimmers of all ages to train alongside national heroes but also ensure that those learn-to-swim programs for moms and tots are also made available.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Did anybody else want to add to that at all?

[Henry Storgaard]

From my perspective, the Paralympics and the Pan Am Games in Toronto provide a huge opportunity for us to ensure that accessibility to all facilities are first-class and that legacy opportunities go beyond facilities into more volunteers, more athletes, more coaches, all of these things we have our eye on and are working on in partnership with the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games secretariat and organizing committee.

[Pierre Lafontaine]

I call them the 7-Eleven sports hubs. I think when you build facilities in local communities, families don't have to ship their good kids away to go and train all over the country. They can dream at home, sleeping in their own beds and so on. I think that's a huge strength in these infrastructure concepts in local communities.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Storgaard, you mentioned accessibility to the facility. Are we also thinking of accessibility by ensuring that there's good public transit that's available so that people of all abilities will be able to access those facilities we're building? Because right now we don't have that in Scarborough.

[Henry Storgaard]

That's absolutely right. It's not only the facility that has to be accessible but accessing it. You can imagine a wheelchair team trying to get to a facility. It involves special transportation requirements. All of this will be built into the Toronto and southern Ontario environment and environs. That will be a great legacy for people with a disability.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. MacAdam, is anything being planned for accessible transit to, for example, the Scarborough facility?

[Lane MacAdam]

My understanding is the Scarborough facility is actually being built way beyond the code requirements in terms of accessibility, taking into account experience from the local sport Paralympic community. There are certain widths of doorways that are minimum code, but they're going beyond that and hoping to attract some national team programming.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

I meant access to the facility, not in the facility.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Ms. Sitsabaiesan.

Mr. Hillyer.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

During your comments, Mr. Storgaard, you said that we're not going to London for a hug, but to win. I thought that was nice, and I'm happy to hear it.

Mr. Lafontaine, you talked about the fact that Canada has the right attitude towards winning, not a Kumbaya mentality where we're just having fun here. I agree with that sentiment, not just at the Olympic level, but even at the kids' level. It's good for kids to know that winning isn't everything, but it matters. Otherwise, what are we doing?

However, I wonder how to guard against, especially at the young ages, even at eight, nine, and ten years old, the type of coaching we unfortunately see too often, and this is in community leagues. It's not like triple A, where players have to try out to get there, but everyone gets on the team. Hockey coaches are pulling kids off after one shift up the ice, and that's their shift for the period. I've seen coaches, for all intents and purposes, benching their poor players during practices so they can focus on their good players. I can see their idea of developing star players so they can go somewhere.

How can we maintain this attitude of doing it for a win and not for a hug and doing it with the right attitude towards winning without missing the mark?

[Pierre Lafontaine]

I think that in the last few years there's been a lot of work done in coaching education. We can't change every one of those coaches. Some of them have been coaching for a long time. There is the long-term athlete development model we've had now for ten years. Again, I think it's Sport Canada that took the lead by saying to every sport that if it's going to be sponsored by Sport Canada, it needs to put this into place.

I do think there have been some great strides forward in making sure it's not just about winning, that it's about creating an environment where every kid wins, and if there's a good one, there's also a pathway for that kid to be great.

[Henry Storgaard]

In the Paralympic community we operate at both ends of the spectrum.

Our mandate is to field the Canadian Paralympic team going to the Paralympic Games, and to bring the best of the best to that arena. The coaches at that level of course are very elite, and are very focused on gold medal performance.

At the other end of the spectrum, we're just trying to get children with disabilities out into the playground. Certainly the messaging there is to encourage recreation, to encourage sport, and to give them an opportunity to create friends on the playing field. It's a completely different system.

I understand exactly what you're saying. We're working, I think collectively, our hardest to ensure that those volunteer recreational coaches are conveying the right messages in the right tone, and providing the right support for our children.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Lafontaine, you talked about having a national vision of Canada being the fittest country in the world, and there's no reason not only to have that vision but also to obtain that goal.

As you know, Conservatives often are concerned about cost. Besides the power that would have for national unity and a sense of national pride, could you talk about the impact such a mentality or such—I don't want to call it a policy—such a vision could have on the health care crisis? We're not talking about that very much, but if something isn't done about our health care system, we're going to run out of money.

[Pierre Lafontaine]

I'll respond quickly, but then I'll pass it on to Chris, who has a lot more statistics on that.

I can tell you that the investment in fitness today will help us tomorrow in the health care program. There's no question. Research has been done. We all know it. But more than anything, I think it's the mental health that sports bring to people, the building of confidence.

We're not really about the sports business. We're about the people business, creating leaders. That's the business we're in. With all the skills that are learned through our medium, which happens to be.... I would say it's similar to a spelling bee, when these kids stand up and they build their confidence. Our medium is sport, and I think that's what we're about.

Somebody's going to say to me, “Yes, but it's going to cost us more for new hips and new knees”, to which I would say, “Then start swimming. It doesn't really affect the hips and the knees.”

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Pierre Lafontaine]

More than anything, though, the offshoot of a great vision, I think, is pride. You can't put a price on pride. You can't put a price on what it does to families. I'm not sure we even know the long-term positive effect of fitness when we have people who are 60 and 70 years old learning new skills and feeling great about themselves.

So we are about building people through our sports.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

That's it, Mr. Hillyer. Five minutes can go pretty fast.

Mr. Dubé.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

There is another issue I would like to discuss. It has to do with what Mr. Brown said about supporting athletes after the games. In my opinion, that's very important. In fact, athletes face the same prejudices as artists. We all see athletes of the Sydney Crosby or Tiger Woods calibre taking advantage of sponsorships coming out of their ears and making a lot of money in their respective sport. In reality, that is not the case for most athletes, even if they compete at a professional level like some of the athletes you work with.

I was wondering how that support is provided. Are things going well? Could we do more to ensure that, once athletes have represented our country abroad, we do not turn our backs on them? They do not necessarily come back from the games with the same income as certain star athletes we see. You understand what I mean.

[Graham Brown]

I know I speak for rugby, but I do play other sports and am involved in other sports. I think there's a strong commitment in the sport community to ensure education. We always encourage our athletes to go to university or college. While they're going, we provide support mechanisms.

Rugby has two sides. On our men's side, a number of our athletes are professional and they go on, but they don't make very much money by North American standards. On the female side, there's a strong encouragement to be involved in the community. We have a centralized program in the city of Victoria and the city of Langford. We encourage our athletes there to engage with the community, to do things that are their passion, that may be in fact their vocation after they're done playing the sport of rugby.

The reality is that it's just really working with the athlete and knowing what they're trying to achieve. In some cases—and this is probably hard for an athlete to hear—it's also working with the athlete to let them know when they should probably leave the sport and focus on their career. Some athletes tend to stay involved in the sport too long, which does in fact hamper their ability to re-engage in their career path.

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

My other question is for everyone. It's about an issue that was brought up by your colleagues last week. Several people have talked about female athletes who have been very successful.

Mr. Montopoli, you talked about that when the women's soccer team was discussed. Women are very successful in rugby and at the Paralympic Games. Ms. Petitclerc is a good example.

It seems to me that Canada is one of the world leaders in terms of female participation in sports. Generally speaking, what are you doing to ensure that we stay on top in terms of that?

[Chris Jones]

Maybe I could just make a couple of observations on behalf of one of my members, the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport.

I think what they would tell you, probably, is that while access to the sport at the intake level is getting better and better all the time, there continues to be an issue around representation in the governance and on the boards of directors and those kinds of things, where perhaps not enough women are present, and hence there aren't as many role models or people that the women and young girls can look to.

I think that is something she continues to work on and is seeking to augment, because there is still work to be done in that area.

[Peter Montopoli]

Maybe I can just add this on the Canadian Soccer Association, where our players, once they graduate from our national team program, can enter into coaching programs. Some have been very successful in broadcasting careers. There are some members from the Oakville soccer club who are now female broadcasters on the national platform. Also, from a FIFA Women's World Cup 2015 perspective, which we are hosting, we'll be introducing women in coaching programs, women in leadership positions, and additional referee programs for women within our sport.

Also, we have implemented a new governance model whereby we have just selected three new women to our board of directors, which falls in with what Chris was just mentioning, additional enhancements in governance. I think, from a sporting perspective, all sports are looking at this. From our soccer perspective, we're looking forward from a female side, as we are world leaders in the sport.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Finally, Mr. Gill.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I also want to thank the witnesses for being here with us today.

I understand we have altogether 150 athletes and about 40 coaches who will be attending these Paralympic Games. I'm wondering if you can tell us how many different competitions Canadian athletes will be participating in at the Paralympics.

[Henry Storgaard]

At the Paralympics, I don't have that available right off my tongue right now.

Well...It's 12. Right. Sorry, I apologize; I thought you meant every level and classification.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Are there going to be competitions Canadian athletes are going to be participating in for the first time in the Paralympics?

[Henry Storgaard]

Absolutely.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Can you tell us what those might be?

[Henry Storgaard]

Well, I have 150 athletes attending. I'm sorry I'm not fluent with the ones who will be competing for the first time. I'm not fluent in their names at this point in time.

I could get back to you on that.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

If you could, that would be great.

I'm not sure if you have the answer to the other question I had. I'd like to know if there are competitions Canadian athletes are not participating in. Maybe you can give a reasoning as to why, what we may be lacking and what we can improve on to prepare our athletes to participate in these competitions in future Paralympics.

[Henry Storgaard]

In terms of the competitions we're not competing in, that's probably about two-thirds of the events and opportunities to compete. We're not competing in two-thirds. The reason for that is multifold.

First, perhaps the Canadian Paralympic athlete did not make the qualifying standard to attend the games. We're under the exact same rules and regulations as the Olympic athletes in terms of game standards.

Second, there may be cases in some sports and some activities that we've not had the funding to develop that particular sport or that particular team in the past few years and we just don't have a team or athletes that are at a world elite level of competition.

There's a whole range. It would be the same as in the Olympic Games, where not every slot is filled.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Thank you.

One of the other committees that I presently sit on is the health committee. We recently studied the importance of healthy lifestyle in preventing chronic disease. How active are your organizations in promoting fitness and physical activities to Canadians, and especially to Canadian youth?

Maybe all of you or some of you will have the opportunity to answer that.

[Chris Jones]

I also wear another hat. I'm temporarily running an organization called Physical and Health Education Canada, whose primary vocation is to get children and youth active in sport.

I'd say we do it in a mixed way across the country. Some areas are effective at it, some school boards are more committed to it than others, but I think it's still a patchwork. I think a lot of kids go without what they should be getting in terms of physical activity and access to sport and recreation.

I think it varies in some of the national sport organizations too, as to how well kids are brought in at the intake level. Some do it very well, and others probably could still improve it.

Back to your point about the links, I think what we're seeing is that the habits that are formed in early years persist into adulthood. If that kid is sedentary—and we know that 25% of a kid's day these days is spent in front of a screen—those behaviours begin to manifest as chronic illness later in life. There's clearly a lot of evidence about the prevalence of type 2 diabetes, about a number of issues that could have been prevented.

One final point I would make is that we put together a graph that showed that the cost of swimming lessons for one year for a child is about $360, and the cost to the Canadian health care system of treating diabetes for one year for a kid who's got that is about $15,000 a year. Clearly, if we could get more kids into the pool we'd probably have fewer coming up with some of these issues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Gill.

We'll end on that note.

I want to thank all our witnesses. We had a very interesting discussion today, with lots of questions and answers. We appreciate all you're doing for sport.

Another committee is coming in now, so we'll have to vacate this room.

Thank you all.

The meeting is adjourned.