Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you very much to the committee members for allowing me to speak today. I do apologize for the lack of beard.
My name is Katherine Henderson. I'm the CEO of Curling Canada and I'm here in my capacity as the spokeswoman for Diversified and Event-Funded National Sports Organizations. We're a group of six NSOs that have come together because of the distinct nature of our organizations' funding model and the impact that COVID is having on Canada's youth sport system.
Our organizations include Curling Canada, Canada Soccer, Hockey Canada, Tennis Canada, Skate Canada and Rugby Canada. As NSOs with the largest commercial and grassroots operations, the total participation reach of our sports is over 10 million Canadians. While we are different in many ways, the common thread that ties us together is that our funding is predominantly generated from non-governmental sources, namely commercial events, hosting of domestic and international competitions, sponsorship, broadcast rights and registration fees.
Thanks to the revenues from these commercial operations, as non-profits we invest heavily in grassroots, community sport and high-performance sport. Unfortunately, these revenue streams have been greatly impacted by the pandemic. While we are grateful for the federal government's $72-million support of the NSO and sport sector and the emergency programs like the wage subsidy, the truth is that Canada's sport system is in dire straits. To put Canada's response into perspective, just last week the British government dedicated emergency funding to the equivalent of $500 million for sports in the U.K.
Let me be crystal clear with the committee today. We are at a critical juncture, with some of our provincial and local associations on the brink of collapse. We have already furloughed staff and we're depleting our reserves. We need financial help—