Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 20th, 2012

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

I have a question that is sort of for all the witnesses.

I think Mr. Aubut spoke about it specifically. What about the Pan-American Games? When I met with people who supported all the efforts made in that respect, they just mentioned a collaboration with the Canadian Olympic Committee and Own the Podium. Any information about this would be relevant and interesting. What are you doing exactly in this area? I understand there are standings. That has always been the case when it comes to international competition, but this time is there work being done that wasn't being done previously?

[Marcel Aubut]

The Pan-American Games are a product of the Canadian Olympic Committee. If they win, we win. We take this very seriously. We are doing everything we can to give them a hand.

For instance, they need our good network relations as far as making sure there is maximum support. We're going to use the Pan Am Games for qualifying for the Olympic Games. This is going to enhance the importance of the games in Toronto. We are helping them in that area.

There are three or four key Olympic Committee executives on the Pan Am board. We work very closely with them. We wanted to show, by not a big amount of money, by $2.6 million, that we also want to invest in what they are trying to achieve. It's going to be announced very soon what we are going to do with that money. In the meantime, we are officially announcing that we are going to help them as far as making them the best Pan Am Games ever.

You saw the way they did it in Rio. They got the Mondiale. They got the Pan Am Games. And they will be hosting the Olympics in 2016. It's a good step to another big event, if you succeed with this one. Let's get comfortable with this one.

I just led a session of the Canadian Olympic Committee last week. I told them once and for all that if there's anyone still on the brakes about 2015, to take their foot off. There will be no more applying of brakes here. We have to cooperate. We have to work with them. We have to support them. We have to make those games the best Pan American Games ever. You can count on the Canadian Olympic Committee to do that.

Christopher, would you like to add anything to this?

[Christopher Overholt]

I would only add that the work we do in the lines of the business is significant, and it has been for some time. Going back to early days, as I joined the COC, I met with Ian Troup and his team early on. My team has continued to work closely, both on the sports side, working closely with Bob O'Doherty and his team. Caroline and his team connected.

On the marketing side and communications, Marcel has already mentioned some of the involvement we've had in their broadcast strategy. It's not only at the most senior levels but in the lines of the business as well, committee work-, and as Marcel has mentioned, on the board.

[Caroline Assalian, Chief Sport Officer, Canadian Olympic Committee]

May I add that there are two aspects of the Pan American Games. There are the games themselves, where we're playing host to 41 countries, and there's the Canadian Pan American team that will be competing. We need to ensure that they're a success, both the team with a best-ever performance, as well as the games as we host the Pan Am countries.

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

This is for the representatives of Own the Podium.

Your involvement in summer sports is more recent than your involvement in winter sports. What will your work for the Pan-Am Games look like?

[Anne Merklinger]

We have not played host to a major multi-sport summer games since the Pan Am Games in 1999 in Winnipeg.

The legacy from the 2015 Pan Am Games will have a significant impact on high-performance sport in Canada. We've worked very closely with our partners in Sport Canada, the Toronto 2015 bid organization, the Canadian Olympic Committee, and all the summer sport organizations that stand to benefit from the high-performance legacy usage out of Toronto. That's first and foremost in our minds. We're already working diligently with those sports to identify what the venue needs to look like, what kind of access we need to have for high-performance sport users and communities post-game. There's a lot of attention to that.

As in Vancouver when we hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games, for the Pan Am Games in Toronto to be successful our team needs to perform well. Own the Podium's role is to work with each of the summer Olympic sport organizations and ensure that they're doing everything possible to prepare, starting now, because we're four years out of Rio and three years out of 2015, in order to have a great result in Toronto.

We are in the midst of what we call summer sport reviews in which we have four-hour grillings of each of the summer sport organizations. They present their plans through to 2016. The plan around Toronto 2015 is an important piece of that discussion that we're in the midst of right now with each of those sports. It's very, very important.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Dubé.

Mr. Simms.

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

Thank you, Chair.

To the committee first, what's the formal process to protest a decision that was made in an Olympic sport? Someone mentioned boxing earlier. We also mentioned the women's soccer team. A young man from Atlantic Canada, a team of young ladies from Canada, quite frankly got robbed. They did. I guess we're in a position where we can...but they did.

What do you when you have serious problems with the way the officiating was done? It was not just one Canadian from Atlantic Canada, a lot of great boxers got robbed. It was quite obvious. I'm no boxing expert, but I've been watching it for quite some time.

[Marcel Aubut]

What can I say? There is a process. If you are not happy, you protest and you wait for the decision. If the decision is turned down, that's the end of the story.

Do you want to add anything, Caroline?

[Caroline Assalian]

There are a couple of things. One, in the case of boxing there was an appeal that was put in, and the appeal was denied.

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

On what basis?

[Caroline Assalian]

Each international sport federation has their rules on reviews, on protests and appeals. We went through in partnership with the national sport federations. We went through the process, put in an appeal, and the appeal was denied.

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

Can officials who are higher than the officials around the ring look at that and say that they think there was a mistake made?

[Caroline Assalian]

Part of being such a great team and great ambassador is to accept the rules that are in place. If the rules that are in place need to be changed, look at changing the rules. The rules are the rules. We all know what the rules are. We stood by the rules.

In the case of the 4 x 100 relay, this is a great story. There was a discussion as to whether we should appeal the decision. It was the athletes, with the coach, who said that the rule is the rule, and our athlete stepped on the line.

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

I agree, and I understand that. But on reflection, you must realize that we have to bang our heads against the wall every time there are Olympic Games and that sort of thing.

This is more of a passing comment. I just think we should be more aggressive when it comes to things like this, because that sport of boxing is not going to improve unless countries like ours stand up and say that enough is enough.

I'll leave it at that, since we're a little uncomfortable about it. Well, you may be, but I'm not.

[Marcel Aubut]

It's a human area here, and there is room for mistakes. I am a big fan of boxing, and many of those nights I left saying that they were wrong. I'm not saying it's right, but it has to be improved, of course.

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

I just hope a recommendation from the committee would be more aggressive about how we deal with this after the Olympics are done, and say that enough is enough.

I'll just move on, because I don't have a lot of time. With respect to Own the Podium, in a small town somewhere in this country there is the next great world champion badminton player, but that little kid will not be noticed unless it's through the school system. What relationship do you have? You're a federal body, but this is a provincial jurisdiction. Some of these smaller towns may hold the next best talent. How do you go through the school system to find out who's there, if you do at all?

[Anne Merklinger]

In some sports we definitely do, and the talent identification process will be an individualized approach for each sport. For some sports, such as gymnastics, you would identify potential talent at an elementary school age. For others it would be much later. Yes, schools are a critical piece. It will be a customized approach for each sport to identify what pathway they need to follow to identify talent.

Again, we'll work with the national sport organizations, which know their sports best, to determine where athletes come from within their sport and how we go about the talent search for those athletes. The schools will definitely be a big part of it in some sports.

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

For kids in the city centre, the accessibility is there for them. I'm from a rural riding. That's why I talk about this. If there's someone in a small town, say in Newfoundland and Labrador, and all of a sudden they want to find themselves at the top of their game at a young age, the infrastructure is not there in most of these sports, fencing for example, and I've mentioned badminton, and they have to find some centre in the country.

Ski jumping is a good example. Not every place has that size of jump. How do you get from a small town in Newfoundland to Thunder Bay or Calgary to train?

[Anne Merklinger]

Yes, we need to find them. We need to engage with all the sport organizations to see where is the potential talent, what do they look like, what's the profile of the future gold medallist, what's their wingspan for rowing, how long do their legs need to be to be a great ski jumper, and how do we search for that profile of an athlete in communities, in schools, everywhere, frankly.

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

Yes, because it seems to me that if you could meet with these high school coaches and minor league coaches on a regular basis.... Do they feed you information all the time, saying that you've got to check out a certain kid?

[Anne Merklinger]

They do. We know that the Canadian sport centres and the Canadian sport institutes, of which there are seven strategically located across the country, will be key places for us to reach out to them and use their networks to identify talent with summer and winter sport organizations as well.

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

If you were to get an extra million dollars, what would you do with it?

I throw that open to both of you.

[Anne Merklinger]

We're 13 months away from Sochi. Just as we went into London making sure that every summer sport organization that was targeted had all the resources they needed to make sure there were no regrets and no obstacles, we need to make sure we have exactly that same approach for Sochi.

First and foremost, we need to contend for number one and be first in Sochi. There are still several gaps, both in Olympic and Paralympic sport, frankly, for us to make sure that we've answered every question around Sochi.

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

Monsieur Aubut.