Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 26th, 2013

[Daniel Thompson]

I'll start, but Liz, jump in.

We have 1,200 clubs across Canada and we have a skating club in every community across Canada. They're driven by volunteers, and we want to celebrate that. So when we visit across Canada for the 100th, we're going to create skating shows and there's going to be a local component where the local club will participate and they'll be able to have a performer in the program, and they'll also be able to promote the CanSkate program.

One of the things we think is very important is that the face of Canada is changing dramatically. We've got a lot of newcomers, and we as a club system need to embrace those new Canadians, so we want to create programs specifically for newcomers. Frankly, whatever discipline of skating they go into doesn't matter. We want to get them on the ice and we want them to enjoy skating, and our volunteers will be great leaders to help grow skating as a national passion.

[Elizabeth Manley-Theobald]

I can't speak on behalf of the other sports, but figure skating is one of the greatest sports for volunteerism. We have a tremendous number. You can go to any event, like the World Figure Skating Championships in London , and we have hundreds of volunteers. I think that just goes to show the strength of what figure skating is. We want people to want to be involved. Just for the so-called picking—the tryouts of flower retrievers and ice patchers and everything for the 100th anniversary—we had over 100 kids show up for about 30 places. That just goes to show that the kids want to be involved, and the parents do too. I'm proud to say that when I went to a competition when I was competing, I could always rely on a great volunteer. Skate Canada has been very strong for that—it's been great.

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

Thank you.

Mr. Moss, you brought up the challenges that lie ahead when it comes to keeping facilities up to date. Speed skating is often said to be one of the sports where our competition sometimes catches up to us and where efforts are needed to stay at the forefront.

Would you tell us what could be done to give our athletes, at every performance level, the facilities they need?

[Ian Moss]

Thank you for the question, Mr. Dubé.

We're in a good place right now relative to the current national training centres. We have a fairly good club system that provides a feeder process. Going forward, we have a concern about the longevity of our training facilities, particularly the Olympic Oval in Calgary. There's probably a 15-year lifespan on it, so we have to now start looking at what the next step is, how we can make it viable. It will require a financial partnership to either replace it or maintain it at a higher level.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much. We're going to have to move on to

Mr. Dion, you have seven minutes.

As well, I'll just remind witnesses that Mr. Farstad is also part of the panel and he might like to take a question or two.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Madam Manley, first, thank you very much for bringing in this medal. I think, if I'm not wrong, it's the first time I've had a medal in my hands, and for a nanosecond I imagined it was me who won it.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

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

It's quite moving, and thank you very much for the inspiration, for the dream, the love of sport, and the pride you give to all Canadians, and to the world, and to the sport that you are so excellent at.

Mr. Thompson, Mr. Moss, Mr. Farstad, even though you did not bring any medals with you, welcome.

I will ask the same questions that I asked the previous witnesses. First, is there something this committee can recommend to the government for Sochi in your sport, or would you say everything is ready and there is nothing further we can do?

[Ian Moss]

Why don't we let Tim go first.

[Tim Farstad]

Just so I understand, you're asking if there's something we can do at this point to help preparations for Sochi?

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

Yes.

[Tim Farstad]

I would say that at this point everything is in place. I think it's a little late, at least for any needs for our sport. We've been supported very well through the Sport Canada Own the Podium program. We pretty well ask for all our high-performance needs as we go into the events. Everything's in place for us for this Olympics, and we're very excited and ready to perform for Canada.

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

Thank you very much.

[Ian Moss]

It's the same in speed skating. We're good to go.

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

Okay.

Mr. Thompson or Ms. Manley-Theobald, would you care to comment?

[Daniel Thompson]

There's one thing you could help us with. We have the strongest team ever going—close to the Calgary team. I shouldn't say “ever”.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Daniel Thompson]

The Calgary team was awesome, but we have one citizenship issue. We have a woman by the name of Piper Gilles, and she's been waiting for her citizenship for a year and a half. Everyone says it's on its way, but you could help us with that. That's one. She has a chance to make the team in dance. We have three dance teams going. We have two very strong teams, and there's a bunch of teams fighting it out for third place, so if you could help us out there, that would be great.

We're very proud of our preparations for Sochi. Mike Slipchuk has been there probably five times, so we're ready. We're actually going to have a staging camp in Boden, Germany for our women speed skaters, so they can fly in and out. So we're set, ready to go. Next, I'll be looking at identifying those athletes in the pipeline that we can move from our junior Grand Prix to the Grand Prix series. We need more kids in the funnel, so our next challenge is how we identify that pathway, how we strengthen—

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

That's after Sochi, though.

[Daniel Thompson]

That's after Sochi, right.

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

Okay. On the immigration problem you just mentioned, I guess you don't want to comment on it because it's a personal case.

Is it a problem that has been made public?

[Daniel Thompson]

I don't think it's a problem. We're expecting that she will get citizenship any day now.

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

Okay, maybe Mr. Dykstra will speak to the minister—

[Daniel Thompson]

It would be nice.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Yes, we're working on it.