Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 26th, 2013

[Steven Hills]

I missed some of that, but I understand your question as being whether we have support for developing future Olympians.

We are challenged. It has been a big challenge. Most of the resources we used to do this came from our corporate funding for investing in programming among the youth groups. We have funding from Sport Canada to develop programs and systems and models and to train judges and officials, but it doesn't go very deep. Most of our funding is directed at those athletes who are already at the high-performance level.

As Mr. Miller indicated, there is definitely a gap between our success in Sochi and what will occur in the future. We have invested a lot to do what we did in Vancouver for our success in Sochi. That is going to be at the expense of the next stage.

So this is a crisis, an issue that we're taking very seriously and facing right now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you.

Mr. Dion, you have seven minutes.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Miller. I want to commend you on your proficiency in French.

This is also to Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Hills. I have the same question for the three of you. Please be as specific as possible.

The question is: what would you like to read in the report of this committee about.... Let's start first with the Olympics that are coming; we'll talk afterwards about after these Olympics. Is there something that at this point in the game we need to write in our report to help you, or is it too late anyway?

[JD Miller]

The cake is baked.

[Steven Hills]

I would agree with Mr. Miller: the cake is baked; this horse is on its way.

I believe, from the snow sport side—not just snowboarding—that we're as prepared as we possibly can be for the Sochi games.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

So that's done. We say “bravo” and “good luck”.

[Steven Hills]

There are a few additional small things, and I believe Own the Podium and Sport Canada have made some minor adjustments and agreed to those already, and some small additional funding pieces are in place. So, as far as the snow sports go, we're pretty much ready.

We are ready.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Mr. Lindsay.

[Christopher Lindsay]

I completely agree. We've had good preparation going in, but the planning to be able to get results at an Olympic games has to start twelve and eight years out.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

We'll talk about that just after this.

Mr. Miller, for Sochi, do you have any recommendations?

[JD Miller]

No. As I've said, the cake is baked and now it will play out on the hills.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Thank you very much.

Now I have the same question, but after Sochi, because when you spoke with Mr. Dubé, I understand you had some concerns.

I would like you to formulate your answer in a way that it could be a recommendation in our report.

What would you like to read in this report about keeping the momentum going after Sochi?

Mr. Hills?

[Steven Hills]

Well, to keep the momentum going after Sochi, unfortunately it's the same old question. It's going to require more money.

As Mr. Miller said, the rest of the world is moving ahead. High performance is moving ahead, and that's increasingly expensive. Spending the same amount of money is effectively spending less in that competitive environment. Own the Podium has made some strides already to invest more in system development. Looking at an eight-year model of development rather than the four-year outlook, again, trying to win at the next games, as well as prepare for the following games, is a financial challenge. It is really all about money in order to continue to win at that momentum level.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Can you be more specific about where the money should go?

[Steven Hills]

The money should continue to be invested in high-performance preparation for the games, but further in the development of youth, and specifically—and I'll pick up on something Mr. Miller said and something I feel very passionately about—the provincial governments play an exceedingly large role in this. When athletes move from a large broad-based participation to a club level, the cost to the family for an athlete to compete at a club level with a qualified coach increases. Then when they move to a provincial team, the costs increase significantly, exponentially.

So the barrier for athletes to move through the system is at that provincial youth level. If there's any way to create, through the federal-provincial/territorial sport committee that exists, a matching bilateral program of funding at the provincial level to bring the provinces into the funding game, as British Columbia and Quebec have done and led the way in, that would have the most impact on the snow sports/winter side of things. It has to be at that provincial level.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Is there something we should do to help the provinces? If you take the B.C. and the Quebec model, what should the federal government do then?

[Steven Hills]

The federal government, in the cases of Quebec and B.C., I believe, has already come into a matching place through the OTP recommendations on some other projects. The Province of B.C. has stepped up with money to invest in high-performance sport at the level I just spoke of. The encouragement for this, the impetus, has been through some OTP carrots to a certain extent. B.C. stepped up, OTP matched it, and the programs came to life. Quebec has always been leading in the area of education with the sport-études program and that school-level, provincial-level athlete support, and investment. If that could occur in more provinces, that would significantly help our pool of talent.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Mr. Lindsay.

[Christopher Lindsay]

Yes, I would certainly second all that; I agree with all of that. I think that from the perspective of a sport that has less broad participation and needs to focus on participation a little bit more, doing things to support provincial initiatives for regionalized training centres could be a major factor. If we can get some sort of matching funding, it would help provinces keep athletes longer, keep them involved all the way through high school and potentially beyond high school. With some sort of proper connection to academics, I think that would be a major support for us.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Mr. Miller, the post-Sochi federal role...?

[JD Miller]

Well, I think the most constructive role that the federal government can play post-Sochi is to oblige all the parties to come to the table so as to determine what sports are important to Canadians, what should be the objectives of our country in the high-performance area, and how we measure success in these areas.

Clearly, my colleagues have mentioned concerns specific to their national sport organizations, but their concerns are applicable to most sport organizations, I would suggest to you. What are we going after? Why are we going after it? Does it strike to sustainability? What is it we wish to achieve?

We have sat for a long time in the afterglow of hosting the world at that magnificent event in Vancouver, and we've been complacent; and we now have the opportunity as we head into a period of challenge to sit down and look at where we want to go. This is fundamental. All stakeholders must move in common purpose. In order to do that, we have to know what the objectives are. It is central to using public and private moneys efficiently. It is central to people collaborating together; and clearly, that involves the provincial governments.

The Quebec government has always been a leader, so we don't have to ask Quebec to top up its contributions. Other provinces, however, have a long ways to go if we want to produce internationally ranking athletes in the next 15 years.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much.

We'll now move to Mr. Boughen for seven minutes.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

And let me add my voice of welcome to our panel this morning and thank you for sharing your expertise with us.

I think I'll look at questions for the panel, and any one of the three members may feel free to answer.

I heard Mr. Miller mention a decline in gold medals and I'm asking myself how we ascertain that. Have we got standard measurement—height, distance—that we put the athletes through and find that their times and distances do not match with current gold medallists? Or what procedures do we do in terms of forecasting how well we're going to do with this podium?

[JD Miller]

As you can imagine, there are a number of parties, both within Canadian sports system and in organizations across the world, that monitor performance. I refer to this as performance analytics. So based on the performances of Canadian athletes most recently at the 2013 world championships, on which I believe you were given a presentation by Mrs. Merklinger from Own the Podium, it's not difficult to project, whether within Canada or by people outside Canada, that there will be a significant drop in gold medal performance.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Well, what do we do to change it, now that we know it's hanging out there?