Canadian Heritage Committee on June 7th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Good morning, everyone. I call the meeting to order.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee is dealing with the study of the activities of the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees on the eve of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Welcome to all of our witnesses.

I will give the Canadian Olympic Committee 10 minutes to present. You can decide how you divide up the time. At eight minutes I will give you a two-minute warning so that you know you have to wrap up. The Canadian Paralympic Committee will get a similar 10-minute time. There will then be a question-and-answer segment.

Without any further ado, I call the Canadian Olympic Committee.

[Christopher Overholt, Chief Executive Officer and Secretary General, Canadian Olympic Committee]

Honourable Chair, members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to update you on our preparations for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, South America's first Olympic Games.

In 59 days, sporting fans from across the world will focus on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as our lead athletes pursue their dreams of standing atop the podium.

My name is Chris Overholt, and I am the chief executive officer of the Canadian Olympic Committee. With me are Eric Myles, our executive director of sport and our lead executive in the sport department, and Carla Anderson, our director of games for Rio 2016.

Before I begin, I would like you to please look at the screen. You will get a first-hand glimpse of what we focus on at the Canadian Olympic Committee.

[Video presentation]

[Eric Myles, Executive Director, Sport, Canadian Olympic Committee]

This video reminds us of the excitement building in Rio as we approach the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in 59 days.

The Summer Olympics are the largest global sporting event, and we are preparing to send the largest delegation in our history: over 315 Canadian athletes will compete against more than 10,000 athletes from 205 countries. Competition is fierce but our Canadian team will be ready.

[Christopher Overholt]

The goal of the Canadian Olympic team is to contend for top 12 in the world in terms of overall medals won. It's an ambitious goal, and given the level of international competition, it will not be easy. So fierce, in fact, is the competition that just a couple of medals can make the difference between coming in 19th or 11th, but we've never been more confident in the ability of our athletes to rise to the challenge.

Our recent success on the international stage is a testament to their readiness for these games and to the incredible support team around them that helps them on their journey. Canadian athletes have won 19 world championship medals at the most recent world championships in Olympic sport.

[Eric Myles]

We are targeting to exceed the 18 total medals won in London. To get there, we will need guts, lots of preparation and a strong support team.

The COC is making every effort to make sure that the athletes' performance lives up to their incredible talent. We have great expertise in this area because we listen to the needs of our athletes and coaches. It is real team work. We learned from them that Olympic competition is very different from any other competitive environment. It is by analyzing these differences that we have been able to offer the best Olympic preparation program to date.

[Christopher Overholt]

Our preparation includes familiarization events to help acclimatize athletes and coaches to the actual games environment. By the time we arrive in Rio for the games, we will have sent 30 of 35 sports to familiarize themselves with the competition venues in general and the Rio environment they will be competing in during these games.

We've also provided information for family and friends, which gets sent directly to the national sport federations to pass on, and developed documents for them that we put on our website. We also provide services, such as helping with visas, and we have dedicated personnel for family and friends on site in Rio.

[Eric Myles]

These initiatives help reduce stress and distractions for our Olympians. This is another way to ensure that the whole Canadian Olympic family will be well prepared to support our athletes in Rio.

[Christopher Overholt]

Our sports and logistics team has made several visits to RIo over the past years. Our operations team is responsible for planning all the logistical details for more than 720 people for almost four weeks of the games period. It takes five years of preparation for four weeks of games.

To give you an idea of the scope of our operations, last month we sent our cargo shipment with clothing, equipment, and healthy Canadian snacks to the port of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

[Eric Myles]

This cargo of clothing, equipment, and healthy snacks filled 18 sea containers that are 40 feet in length. This is important because we all know that sometimes it's the small things that make the difference between success and failure. Supporting our athletes is therefore essential.

[Christopher Overholt]

It is important because we all know that sometimes it's the small things that make the difference in an athlete's performance. Again, to give you an idea of size, over a two-day period the outfitting team will pack more than 720 bags to send to our athletes and support team in Rio. In each bag will be 24 pieces of clothing and accessories. It's incredible to see the determination and pride that wearing the Canadian maple leaf brings to our athletes.

There'll be five main COC operational venues for the Canadian Olympic team: our Olympic village, two performance centres, the main press centre, and of course Canada Olympic House. Our athletes will be housed in the Olympic village or the COC's performance centre in Ipanema, with others spread out in other locations.

We have a ticketing team to help arrange for athletes to view competitions of their teammates from other sports. We have complete health, sport, and technology services filled by an expert Canadian health and science team, and the COC's performance technology services in the Olympic village includes video analysis technology to capture and analyze all Canadian Olympic team performances.

The COC has also developed a wellness centre to provide a calm and relaxing environment for Team Canada in the Olympic village. All this preparation is shared in collaboration with Own the Podium and our national sports federations to ensure every minute of every athlete's journey is smooth and efficient and that no stone is left unturned.

Our collaboration, especially with Sport Canada, is significant across all relevant sectors and is crucial to our success.

[Eric Myles]

In the Olympic village, the Canadian Olympic Committee offers many services for athlete orientation and entertainment between the competitions and training. They will have at their disposal concierge service, computer access, a training centre exclusively for the Canadian team, ticketing and access to Canadian coverage of the Games. Our specialists in health and wellness will help our athletes to focus on performance and not be distracted by the Olympic environment.

Again, we will welcome the athletes, their families, and their friends to Canada Olympic House, a home away from home for Canadians, where friends and family can get away from the distractions, away from the Olympic crowds.

[Christopher Overholt]

Few things mobilize as many sectors of our society as the Olympic Games. Team Canada, of course, comprises not only athletes, coaches, technical support staff, and team leaders but also doctors and physiotherapists, operations personnel, communications and digital teams, outfitting teams, and security services, including, of course, RCMP officers to ensure the safety of the Canadian Olympic team while Brazilian security forces look after the general safety of all those involved.

We're also working on the Rio games communications plan. Heading into Rio, we're building on the strong connection between Canadians and their Olympic team. As we did for Sochi 2014 in the Olympic Winter Games, we'll be announcing all our teams before Rio and have announced six teams so far. We can feel the anticipation building as Canadians seek to learn the inspiring stories of athletes who will represent our country.

[Eric Myles]

We continue to look for creative ways to bring Canadians closer to our athletes on the road to Rio and to tell their inspiring stories. We are committed to raising the visibility of our Olympians, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.

Organizing the Canadian mission in Rio is a colossal task and a complex one. It represents five years of work. We will rise to the challenge, however, taking the cue from our athletes' courage and persistence.

[Christopher Overholt]

We are particularly pleased to have this opportunity to address this committee because the Government of Canada plays such an important role as a contributor to sport in this country, in particular to our national sport federations and our athletes and coaches in Canada. We're so grateful for that support. Without question, continued strong and stable government funding is critical. The collaboration between our organizations is essential to the success of our athletes today and to ensure future generations of Olympians soar to even greater heights.

Participation and inclusivity in amateur sport is one of our greatest avenues in creating improved health and safety, confidence, community, and culture. We have to admit that sport is taking a bit of a hit right now with disturbing allegations of systematic doping that have surfaced in the past months. We can say that Canada is standing firm on the side of clean athletes. That is why we are testing all our athletes before the games and why we emphatically support our partners, including the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency, which works so diligently to ensure a fair and level playing field for all.

It's critical that we protect the integrity of sport so that it can continue to unite the world and transform our societies. It's also critical that we continue to support our athletes in all areas of their life and wellness; this is at the centre of our mantra at the COC.

Our work isn't just about getting athletes to the games. We work all year round on various programs, some in collaboration with provinces and governments, to ensure healthy and prosperous sport systems from the playground to the podium.

We call on all Canadians to rally behind our athletes once again as they compete against the world to make our community proud. Canada's mission for Rio is a huge undertaking. By working together with all the partners, we will succeed for our athletes.

Thank you for your attention today. We'll be happy to answer any questions you may you have in English or French.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

Now we will go to the Paralympic Committee for ten minutes.

[Video presentation]

[Karen O'Neill, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Paralympic Committee]

Good morning, honourable Chair and committee members. Thank you very much for the opportunity to provide an update to you today, which will include a number of things: first, an update on the Rio Paralympics; second, a bit about our Team Canada preparations; and third, how we intend to tell the story and share it with all Canadians from coast to coast.

Before I start, I would like to acknowledge the continued strong leadership and financial support of the Government of Canada and the leadership and work of our National Sport Federations and performance partners such as Sport Canada, Own the Podium, and the Coaching Association of Canada as they support our athletes to compete in the games.

Now let's turn our attention to the deck that you all have in front of you. We will walk through it, and at least you will have a memory and some reminders of some of the information that we are going to share with you today. We will start with page 3.

The Rio Paralympics will be held from September 7 to September 18, and approximately 176 countries will be competing, with a total of 4,350 athletes. There will be 23 disciplines—that means 22 sports, and cycling has two disciplines—and there will be 11 days of competition. Most important for all of us to note is that there will be 528 medals to take away. That is what our focus is on, the 528, and second, the two new sports that have been added, triathlon and canoe, for both of which Canada will be providing athletes.

The next page speaks about Team Canada's composition. Currently, we are looking at about 155 to 160 athletes, and this also includes the guides. As Chris mentioned earlier, when you add all the support—the coaching, the medical personnel, the mission staff, and the admin staff, and a small village to make this effective and help support the athletes—our overall Team Canada size will be approximately 300 individuals.

Leading this large team will be none other than one of our most decorated Paralympic athletes, five-time Paralympian Ms. Chantal Petitclerc. Her leadership is based upon an incredible level and years of experience in knowing what it takes to win and the kind of performance environment we need to provide for our athletes to do their very best on the world stage.

Chris also referred a little bit to the sequencing for the notification of the sports. It is a whole process, and currently we have confirmed and nominated seven sports to be part of Team Canada leading into Rio. The remaining sports will be nominated and appointed from today up until about August 7, after which we will announce the overall Team Canada sequence.

[Catherine Gosselin-Després, Executive Director, Sport, Canadian Paralympic Committee]

For the majority of sports, the athletes are already on the ground in Rio.

We also worked very closely with the Canadian Olympic Committee for certain sports that are integrated, to visit the sites and become familiar with them, where appropriate.

For these Games, we have invested much more in familiarization and visiting sport sites. In 2016, there was an orientation for the team in Rio, and all our team leaders and head coaches were there.

We decided to have a performance centre very close to the Olympic site. This will help manage comings and goings and all the on-site activities.

We have worked closely with the Canadian consulate in Rio and with the RCMP on security aspects in the lead-up to the Games.

Our key priority for Rio is performance. Our key pillars, which you will see in your deck, are to be athlete-centred, to be high-performance-oriented, to provide professional services, to plan proactively ahead of the games, and to have an effective delivery of operational services on site at the games.

For the Rio Games, our goal is to be in the top 16 for the number of medals overall. This will be hard to do though since the paralympic movement has grown a lot since the London Games, it has grown incredibly. We would have to win about 30 medals overall to achieve that goal.

There are various problems in Rio, such as the Zika virus and security. We are putting plans in place to ensure that all the risks are managed effectively and proactively. We are working with partners such as Sport Canada and the RCMP to ensure that these problems are managed in advance and that plans are in place.

[Martin Richard, Executive Director, Communications and Marketing, Canadian Paralympic Committee]

Now, around telling our story, to meet our athletes is, for us, incredible, and to hear their stories is definitely unforgettable, but to watch them compete, as you saw in the video, will change you forever. The games are tough, but Canadian athletes are definitely tougher. This is why it is important for the Canadian Paralympic Committee to ensure that the stories of our Paralympians, both on and off the field of play, are shared with all Canadians from coast to coast.

In 2013 the Canadian Paralympic Committee acquired the broadcast and digital rights for the Sochi and Rio Paralympic Games. That led to the creation of the Canadian Paralympic media consortium, which consists of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio-Canada and Rogers Sportsnet, as well as AMI television, both French and English, in addition to digital partners such as Yahoo! Canada, SendtoNews, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Videogami—a big group of people. It delivered groundbreaking coverage of Paralympic sport to Canadians. This, obviously, was all funded by our corporate partners at the Paralympic Committee.

Rio will bring unprecedented coverage, the triple of what we brought to Canadians for Sochi. We are looking at more than 200 hours of television broadcasts.

Yes, I said 200 hours of television coverage for Canada.

That's coast to coast.

We will also bring to Canadians 800 hours of live digital streaming across 12 different channels. The content will be described for a visually impaired audience through our partnership with AMI television and AMI-télé. There will be more than 150 live Canadian moments brought to you via the Team Canada digital platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.

To build excitement in the lead-up to the games, Team Canada will be launching its brand campaign, entitled ParaTough. It will focus on the hard work and investment required to become an elite Paralympic athlete. It will feature a variety of sports and a variety of athletes whom you will all see in Rio competing, seeing the training pay off, so to speak.

Obviously the brand campaign will move a step forward in engaging Canadians in a challenge that we call the ParaTough challenge. We will reach Canadians through a variety of channels and key influencers to really try out what it takes to be a Paralympic athlete and what it takes to be active. Our goal will be to replicate the ice bucket challenge that you saw last year in building awareness for the Paralympic movement, but also to get Canadians active, which is a key goal for this campaign.

There are 92 days left until the opening ceremonies of the Paralympic Games in Rio. You're probably asking yourselves how you can be champions for Team Canada. Well, as the Olympic Committee and Karen mentioned earlier, we will have individual sport nominations throughout the country in the lead-up to August. We would like your participation and support in your local communities to build excitement when we announce athletes from across the country.

Also, we will be launching the official Team Canada roster at the end of August. As you will probably hear from the Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Team Canada will be launching the Paralympic flip-flops, which is a unique item that will support fundraising for the Canadian Paralympic team and its athletes in the next wave of athletes, so to speak.

The ParaTough campaign will be launched July 4 on Parliament Hill. If you are still in Ottawa, we would like to invite you to take part in this launch, and also to take part in the challenge.

[Karen O'Neill]

Speaking of the flip-flops, we have brought flip-flops for each of you so that you'll be able to enjoy a soft launch and inspire everybody with you.

In closing, sport has a tremendous power to transform all of us as individuals, as communities, and as a country. I hope you will all join us in your continued support and cheer for our Team Canada Paralympians in September.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

Before we go to questions and answers, I need to ask the committee a question.

Mr. Lauzon, the parliamentary secretary for Minister Qualtrough, wondered whether you would allow him to just have a few words. Do I hear any...?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Fine The committee agrees.

Go ahead, Mr. Lauzon.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary for Sport and Persons with Disabilities]

I would like to thank you all for being here this morning. I appreciate it.

I am here today as the parliamentary secretary to Carla Qualtrough. I am pleased to be your spokesperson right across Canada in the lead-up to the Olympic Games. It is something I really enjoy.

I would like to thank you for your work thus far. I wanted to thank you personally. I wish you the best of luck in the next Games. Keep up the good work.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lauzon.

Now we go to the question-and-answer part. The first round is going to be seven minutes. That includes the question and the answer, so I would like everybody to be as crisp and concise as they can be.

We begin with Mr. O'Regan of the Liberals, for seven minutes.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My question pertains specifically to the Paralympic Games. I have noticed that viewership has increased considerably from one Games to the next. Can you explain why?

Moreover, can Canadians expect more extensive coverage of the Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016?

Also, has the Canadian Paralympic Committee taken steps to have additional sports included in future Paralympic Games? Could you give the committee a short list of the sports that the CPC would like to see in future Games?

Thank you very much.