Canadian Heritage Committee on Feb. 7th, 2019

[Andrew Campbell]

With regard to the definition of national sports organizations, there is actually a two-page definition, which I didn't bring today, but we can certainly share it with the committee.

Outside of that, from indigenous organizations, and certainly from a social development perspective, it's more what the indigenous community is coming to us and talking to us about in terms of what those types of sporting activities are. For instance, on a national basis, you may not have—I always get the name of it wrong—what is essentially field hockey with a double ball. That's a sport, which, within certain indigenous communities.... Certainly, for sports such as broomball and others, which have female indigenous groups with high participation, we would look towards funding those types of activities as well, through the community saying, “These are important from our perspective in the sport area.”

I will say that within the Arctic Winter Games there are games such as pole push, which would not be a traditional sort of game that many of us would have grown up with but is quite a popular sport throughout the north. There's the one-foot high kick, which is a sport. Johnny Issaluk, a great Canadian, has been able to win world championships in that. It would not be on the Olympic agenda, but within the indigenous community it is considered as part of their sport.

[David Yurdiga]

Thank you.

I'll share my time with Mr. Blaney.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

You have 45 seconds.

[Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

It was Mr. John Chabot. He played for the Montreal Canadians, the Detroit Red Wings, the Pittsburgh Penguins and he helped rehabilitate young offenders by sharing his knowledge with them.

I'd like to read one last quote from Mr. Guy Fournier. It is taken from today's edition of Le Journal de Montréal: “The issues of the digital era are causing great turbulence in a sector that provides thousands of jobs and represents billions of dollars”.

If, on behalf of the Canadian government, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage does not study this, who will? What is our work as members of Parliament if it is not to deal with issues we are mandated to study?

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Mr. Blaney, your speaking time has elapsed.

It is now Mr. Chen's turn.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm very pleased to hear from our witnesses today that the Tom Longboat award was reinstated for federal recipients. Can you share with me when that occurred? When was the award not given out?

[Vicki Walker]

It was reinstated in 2017 specifically in response to call to action number 87.

Andrew, do you know when it was suspended?

[Andrew Campbell]

We certainly have people behind us who might be able to answer that. I'm going to turn to them for one second.

[A voice]

It was 2012.

[Andrew Campbell]

It was in 2012. There you go.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

I'm asking because I have a connection to Tom Longboat in my riding. I have a school that is named Tom Longboat Junior Public School. Tom Longboat is, of course, known as the dominant long-distance runner of his time, but what some people might not know is that he was born into poverty. He was forced to attend a residential school at the age of 12. He grew up poor. This is the legacy, the history that has been passed on from generation to generation, faced by indigenous youth.

I look at this issue and I'm new to this committee, I'm a guest today, but I know that the government committee led by Dennis Mills, a former MP who is a predecessor to the Chair's riding, released a report in 1998, and I just want to quote from that report:

Aboriginal people have a poverty rate comparable to that found in developing countries, an unemployment rate among adults of almost 25%, a poorly educated population and a dramatic suicide rate, which among 10- to 19-year-olds, is more than five times higher than that of their non-aboriginal counterparts.... Forty-four per cent of aboriginal people smoke daily, 61% report problems with alcohol abuse and 48% report problems with drug abuse.

I know that there was a significant investment made in last year's budget, $47.5 million over the next five years, as my colleague mentioned, that is specifically targeted to expanding the use of sport to achieve social mobility in indigenous communities. From my other committee, public accounts, it was a very stark message that our Auditor General, the late Michael Ferguson, shared last year. He described Canada's inability to help improve the lives of indigenous peoples in Canada as “an incomprehensible failure”.

We have come a long way, yet there is a lot more work to do. Can you share with me anything that has changed since that 1998 Mills report? What do you anticipate this budget of $47.5 million will do to turn this around, so that the next auditor general does not come back and say that Canada has again failed our indigenous people?

[Andrew Campbell]

I'm happy to say the Mills report had four major recommendations that related directly back to sport, and all four of those have been realized since 1998. One of them was the creation of aboriginal sports organizations across the country, and out of that, the Aboriginal Sport Circle was founded. There was a whole series that related to coaching and coaching strategies. With funding from the Coaching Association of Canada and major contributions from the Government of Canada, they've been able to bring aboriginal coaching to the fore. There are aboriginal coaching modules available for everyone, not just if you're indigenous. The government worked to create a funding framework for the North American Indigenous Games. That funding framework is now in place, is moving forward and will be looked at during the upcoming provincial-territorial ministers meeting.

Certainly there have been all of these things as well as adequate funding for sport bodies. We now have the sport bodies in each of the provinces and territories, with the assistance—50%—coming from each province and territory. On top of our dollars, this is giving them stable and sustainable funding. Out of the Mills report, there were those recommendations and all have been met. That's the type of track record we want to build upon as we look at the types of investments that are now being brought and being asked for.

I think the biggest difference is that now we actually have that capacity and infrastructure within indigenous communities, so indigenous communities are leading indigenous communities to better sport outcomes and better outcomes overall, from a social development perspective.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

That brings us to an end, but that was a great way to conclude your testimony. I really appreciate you coming and sharing your knowledge with us.

We will be suspending briefly so that we can go to our in camera portion. Thank you.

[Proceedings continue in camera]