Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 4th, 2016

[Dr. Diane Culver]

It's huge. For sure, it's the families.

What occurred to me is that it is a cultural thing. I think one of the things we really need to face here is the fact that we have a lot of new Canadians. We've actually done some studies on getting new Canadians into coaching, not specifically women coaches but this is definitely an area, as a sidebar, that needs to be looked at because there are many cultures where women are not supposed to participate in sports. If we want these new Canadians to be part of the Canadian society, we need to encourage that and we need to look at addressing that for sure.

In regard to the role of families, there are quite a few studies out there that show how important it is.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Thank you.

Dr. Demers.

[Dr. Guylaine Demers]

For me, definitely the parents have their say. We have girls who have been in a family where the father in particular encouraged his daughter to do sports and is totally into it. Definitely there is a huge impact there. For me, the lever would be in the school system with the phys. ed. teachers. I think this is where it should start, because every kid goes to school, so this is where you can reach every single parent.

Absolutely, we should think about how can we educate the parents about the importance of sports for girls and boys. The impact it has on grades is usually a good point to convince parents of the importance of doing sports. So, for me, the lever would definitely be going through the school system and working with the parents, because they have a huge impact.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Thank you.

Dr. Kerr.

[Dr. Gretchen Kerr]

The recommendations need to be multi-faceted and multi-layered, and parents are certainly a part of the sport culture and coaching.

I was also going to pick up on the value of sport, physical activity, and physical education in the school system, because schools are the great equalizer. It's there where every child goes to school and gets exposed to physical activity in such a way as to develop the physical literacy skills they need to enjoy sport participation. I think, when we're looking at sport, that the education system needs to be a piece of that puzzle.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Thank you very much.

I see all of you saying basically the same thing. When we talk about the schooling system, maybe it's more of an education program as opposed to a costing program. It is good to see that we can hopefully approach that and put some policies in place for that.

Dr. Kerr, you talked about participation, in particular in coaching, and I'm just wondering if you can comment. You mentioned that the coaching levels in the CIS have dropped since 2011. If I understood you correctly, you said it was about 17% initially, and it's now down to....

[Dr. Gretchen Kerr]

It was 19% in 2011, and it was 17% in 2013. We're working on the 2015 data right now. It's not been confirmed, but it's certainly not better.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

You told us that 56% of university students are female. What participation rate do they have in intramural and CIS-type programs?

[Dr. Gretchen Kerr]

In the CIS program there is a relatively equal number of competitive spots for males and females, and there are the same number of male teams as there are female teams within the CIS.

It's at the coaching level where you really see the discrepancy between males and females, and that applies for coaches of female-only teams, coaches of coed teams, and certainly coaches of male teams. There's only one woman in the CIS system coaching a male team.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I'm looking at the intramural program. Are there statistics that you have on the female participation rate in those intramural programs? I know there are male and female sports—such as broomball, etc.—but there are also coed programs. Is there an equal participation rate of females at the university level?

[Dr. Gretchen Kerr]

That data exists, but I don't have it at my fingertips. If we're going to ask that question, I think we need to look more broadly, because more women participate in instructional fitness classes than men, as another example. More women participate in the dance program than men. I think, if we're going to look at the numbers for physical activity participation in addition to sport specifically, we need to consider all of those opportunities.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

That's very true. Those are activities that we want to see greater participation in.

Very quickly—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I don't think you'll be able to make it in the three seconds you have left.

Thank you.

Now we have Ms. Trudel from the NDP.

[Karine Trudel, NDP, Jonquière, QC]

Good morning. Thank you for your presentation.

I also thank my colleague from Toronto—Danforth. We have not talked about this subject for 18 years, and I am very pleased to be taking part in the committee's meeting today. I want to thank it for its project.

I found your presentation very interesting. In fact, it reminded me of a colleague at my former job. She was a marathon runner who represented Canada. She sold tickets on the side of the road to fund her sports activity. She asked me whether I could do something to help her continue to practise her sport, which she had to combine with her career. This morning, that extraordinary woman has a very special place in my mind.

That brings me to my question. So far, we have talked at length about the presence of women on boards of directors and how to encourage them. Can you explain why women like the one I have just mentioned get fewer sponsorships than men? Do you see a striking difference?

[Dr. Diane Culver]

Certainly there is a difference. That is not my field of research, so I do not have any data on that subject.

[Dr. Guylaine Demers]

It is very well documented. As Ms. Kerr was saying earlier, we do not have the figures, but when it comes to sponsorships for men's and women's sports, it is day and night. In fact, we almost cannot compare the two situations, because there are so few sponsorships on the women's side.

That brings us to the question of media coverage of women's sports. Sponsors are looking for visibility, so if there is no media coverage of women's sports, it will be much more difficult to attract them. Television gives us women's tennis, because the athletes are wearing skirts and are pretty, and a bit of golf and some figure skating. Otherwise, we do not see any. The importance the media assign to men's sports as compared to women's sports creates an incredible gap.

[Karine Trudel, NDP, Jonquière, QC]

We are talking about media coverage. At the Rio Olympic Games, the first ten medals for Canada were won by women. My team and I asked how that would have been covered by the media if those medals had been won by men. The fact that 10 women won medals is something to be proud of, but the way it was reported lacked balance.

I would like to hear your impression about that media coverage.

[Dr. Guylaine Demers]

When the media made a big deal out of the fact that women were winning medals, my first reaction was to remark that if they had followed their training for the previous year, they would not have been surprised. The media took no interest in them, and all of a sudden, they realized we had good athletes. The first reaction I had was to tell them to wake up. We knew ourselves that they were going to win.

There is also the risk, following the Rio Olympic Games, that people will think there are no more problems when it comes to women's sport. Women won medals and everything is going very well. Canada had more female representatives; I think 60% of our athletes in Rio were women. They won 16 medals out of 22. So we think that women's sport is going fine. Our women athletes' success masks the imbalance when it comes to funding and support. We forget what the athletes had to do to get to Rio. If we consider the training and the financial support they needed to get there, they deserved to win two medals each. There is a real gender gap. That was my reaction.

[Dr. Diane Culver]

Women probably did not succeed in some trials because they did not receive the support they would have needed. Canada might have won more medals. For example, we now have integrated support teams, or ISTs. Apart from a few physiotherapists and Ms. Werthner, who is a sports psychologist, most of the teams that provide support for women are made up of men.

[Karine Trudel, NDP, Jonquière, QC]

You mention support teams. I had a strong reaction when you talked about the pressure women endure in secondary school. They do indeed endure pressure there.

I have two sons. I do sports with them now, to encourage them. I had no female examples when I was young. How are we doing as women to persuade governments, particularly at the federal level, to do more to support women's sport? The example I would give is the marathon runner to whom we had nothing to offer.

In addition, there is balancing work and family. How can a woman athlete think about starting a family while continuing her training? Can you talk about that specifically? You were interrupted earlier, and since I have some time left, you can finish your explanation.

[Dr. Guylaine Demers]

Michael Messner is an American researcher whom I adore. He has written that if little boys have women sports coaches or female models in leadership positions, later, in their adult lives, they will consider it normal — not a word I like — for a woman to be in a leadership position. Having a woman boss is part of life. As well, young boys who are exposed very early to female leadership are going to exert influence as they grow up on the people around them concerning how women in leadership positions are perceived. So you are doing something extremely important for your boys.

Second, how can we help women? In order for it to be possible to have a career and train, obviously there have to be financial support and structures in place. Do women have babysitters?

When you are a coach and a young mother who has just given birth and is breastfeeding, can you get a babysitter paid for, for the baby you have to bring to the competition with you because you are breastfeeding?

There are things that could be done, but we have to keep in mind that in 2016, it is still women having babies. We sometimes see that as an obstacle, but if there were a support structure, some women would be able to pursue their career in sport for a very long time. Those are the facts of life for women in the world of sport.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much, Ms. Trudel.

Then we go to Mr. O'Regan for the Liberals, for seven minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you all for appearing.

We're very excited to be able to talk to you today. It's very timely, namely because I think that all of us around this table and almost all Canadians I know of were so excited by our performance in Rio. As somebody who used to be in the media, I think the amount of attention that our female athletes received, and beyond that, the fact that I know so many.... My nieces, for instance, and young girls of my friends jokingly, but not jokingly, said, “When are the men going to do their bit?”

It seemed to me to be an incredible turning point. As you mentioned in the report that you gave us on the status of female sport participation in Canada, media coverage is key, and it's key not only to ensuring that we have enough women participating as athletes and coaches, and as support, but also for endorsement and sponsorship, and sustaining female champions and female excellence in sport.

As you pointed out, it tempered my enthusiasm. It wasn't the turning point that I thought it was. Is that fair to say?

[Dr. Diane Culver]

It's never too late.

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

Let me be clear: was it a good thing or not a good thing?