Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 19th, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

You have two minutes left.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Good.

One of the things that all athletes face is performance objectives: how well do I run that hundred yards, how high do I get off the ski slope, and all the rest of those things.

Have there been performance objectives established with the Paralympic athletes so that they have a chance to do better than their very best? Are they going to be clocked at what it is they do? Can you tell us about that?

[Karen O'Neill]

Maybe I'll respond from a Paralympic perspective, and then my colleague, who lives and breathes performance on a daily basis, will jump in here.

Absolutely, it's “same as same as”. I would say that each of our member sports presents a plan to Own the Podium that clearly lists their entire quadrennial plan. It would be called their yearly training plan, with key targets throughout. The difference between our Olympic colleagues and us is that there's an additional item called classification. For instance, if you're at a swimming meet there will be a number of classifications, so an individual who might have no arm, or might have spinal cord...will have a classification, and there will be a different designation for their performance targets.

But make no bones about it. They are world-class performance targets that each of these have built into their plans and aspired to in terms of targets along the way and in their final completion for a berth in Sochi.

[Anne Merklinger]

Thanks, Karen.

Every athlete will have their own personal performance objective. Every sport will have its own sport objective, and we as a nation have our performance objectives for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as you've heard.

An important element that Own the Podium has introduced in the last two years is not just looking at Sochi, but looking at the next set of games and making sure that we're developing that next generation of podium-potential athletes. So that is another important metric that we will look at in this set of games, and we're already looking at 2022. As a nation we want to sustain our performance at the Olympic and Paralympic Games from games to games to games. We need to invest a little bit deeper in that next-generation athlete, so there are performance objectives established eight years out as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Okay, thank you very much.

We'll go to the second round, in which there will only be one questioner, Ms. Mathyssen.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And thank you so much for all of this information.

It's clear that you've done a remarkable amount of work in regard to what I think is the most significant piece of this, and that is the preparation of athletes, the celebration of athletes. We haven't recognized these incredible talents the way we should have. I'm very grateful you've made that special effort because these are special people by virtue of the level of skill and incredible aplomb and dedication they bring to their sport.

I had a couple of things in regard to these elite athletes. There has been a great deal of discussion about how to prepare an elite athlete and the impact they have on the general public, as role models and in defining what it means to function in a community. To what degree are you able to develop young athletes? There have to be all kinds of kids out there who have no idea what they can become. Are you able to direct some of your energy toward saying, “This is a possible for you and we will develop that talent”?

[Karen O'Neill]

Thank you very much. I wish I had the next hour. Let me respond to that in two ways.

I'll ask Martin, in a minute, to speak to the communications campaign. It's one thing to present the achievements of the athlete, but we're trying to tie that into the get-involved campaign afterwards. It's one thing to celebrate the heroic achievements of our athletes in Sochi, but there needs to be something afterwards. It'll be for naught if we can't leverage that and inspire the next generation. In fact, I would say a good third of our athletes on our current hopeful Sochi team have shared with Martin and his team many of the stories they saw or heard about one of the athletes on TV or in the newspaper. And that's how, particularly for an individual with a disability, they knew it was possible—they were exposed to it.

In my opening remarks, I made a comment about system. In fact, with the generous investment post-Vancouver, that's what we've been working on. Our goal is to increase the participation rates of individuals with a disability from 3% to 6%. We have research to say that exposure is good. But unless exposure has an opportunity to see it and test it, or try it afterwards, then the exposure is really for naught. That's why the system pieces have to fit together like a puzzle—a person sees the opportunity, then knows where to go, then has some assistance to navigate the system. We need a catchment system, so that programs and quality coaches can appeal to new individuals and get them to try the sport activity.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you.

[Martin Richard]

All athletes inspire. They inspire Canadians. And those are the stories that we want to bring to the Canadian public during the Paralympic Games. The Paralympic Games provide us the opportunity of increased awareness of the sport.

We want to make sure that the younger generation sees themselves doing Paralympic sports. We have a campaign entitled “It's More Than Sport” that showcases the benefits of sports, the benefits sports bring as a lifelong skill. During the Paralympic Games, in the 100 days leading up to the games, we're ensuring that this PSA campaign is shown on all our media partners' platforms to drive the awareness that sport is available to all.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

We talked about the school programs. How do the school districts connect so that they can participate?

[Martin Richard]

Between the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, the Paralympic Committee is launching its Paralympic Schools Week. We'll be reaching out to over 75,000 schools, schoolchildren, and teachers, and we'll be using our summer athletes to promote the Paralympic movement. This will be key for us in increasing the awareness for the Paralympic Games, but also in making sure that young kids are exposed to these individuals and their stories.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much.

On behalf of the committee, I'd like to thank our witnesses for joining us today. It was very informative, and I know the committee appreciated it.

The meeting is adjourned.