Thank you for your presentation, Mr. Lafontaine.
Thanks for coming in.
I had a conversation a while ago with one of my colleagues, Kirsty Duncan, and we were discussing the witnesses coming in. One of the things she wanted me to bring up, and I think you have already done it, was the absence and the increasing absence of emphasis on physical education in our schools. She said it seems that every time money is cut in schools it comes from the phys. ed. program first. If it's not from that, it's probably from music, but phys. ed. is certainly up there.
One of the things we talked about here, as far as the coaching level is concerned, is that in smaller communities, and this was also brought up here earlier, it's obviously harder for a phys. ed. teacher to be the best coach in every sport, because they have to be generalists; they have to do everything. It's all about physical fitness. But it's harder for them in some sports to recognize that talent that draws a person from a small community into what I'll call the big leagues. For example, my phys. ed. teacher specialized in volleyball, but he probably wouldn't know a good badminton player or a good swimmer for that matter, if one walked right up to him and said hello.
Do you think there's a vast amount of improvement to be made when it comes to getting talented people in our schools into a certain discipline that allows them to become a far greater athlete than they ever imagined?