Thank you, Chair.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for inviting me to join you.
Chair, just to put it on the record, I'm happy to stay to make up for the time we've lost. If that works for all of you, I can stay for the whole hour. I'll leave it to you guys to figure that out.
I'd like to begin by acknowledging that we are gathered on the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
It's a pleasure to meet with the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to discuss my mandate as Minister of Sport and Physical Activity.
Our government acted quickly to protect Canadians during the COVID‑19 pandemic and put many measures in place to ensure Canadians could look after their families and pay their bills. As per my mandate, we've since worked to build the sport system back up and to harness the power of sport for the benefit of the greatest possible number of Canadians.
I have returned to this role at a time when Canada's sport system is at a critical crossroads. My own experience as an athlete has taught me first-hand the positive power and potential of sport, but we've also seen over and over again that with insufficient safeguards and accountability, sport can also do harm.
I want acknowledge the survivors who have bravely come forward to bring to light their lived experiences, including during this committee's study on safe sport. I admire their courage. What happened should never have happened, and I am committed to ensuring that they are supported.
Regarding the safe sport report, I commend the work of this committee to date and look forward to seeing its completion and your recommendations.
As a key part of my mandate, yesterday I announced the creation of an independent and impartial future of sport in Canada commission. This commission will launch in the new year. The commission will provide a forum to bring the lived experiences of victims and survivors to light, support healing and engage broadly on how to improve the sport system in Canada. The commission will be trauma-informed, survivor-centred and human rights-based.
I strongly believe that athletes must have a voice in changing Canada's sport system. To that end, we'll continue to make capacity-building investments in AthletesCAN to enhance the role of athletes in the sport system. We are elevating the Sport Canada Athlete Advisory Committee to the ministerial level. In January, we will reopen a call to athletes to participate in this committee. The committee will provide me with athlete input and perspectives directly on sport policy and programming. Also, to ensure greater independence, we will begin to transition the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner and the abuse-free sport program out of the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada.
We all recognize that sport is vital to leading healthy lifestyles. My mandate makes it clear that sport should be promoted as a means of encouraging Canadians, especially children and youth, to integrate and increase physical activity in their daily lives. Even before the pandemic, fewer than half of adults, children and youth met the current physical activity recommendations, and sedentary behaviour was on the rise. We need to do more to help Canadians get moving and live healthy and active lifestyles.
I'll continue to work with our partners, including provincial and territorial governments and organizations throughout the Canadian sport system, to enhance opportunities for all Canadians to participate in sport. This means also working to ensure that under-represented communities have better access to positive sport and physical activity opportunities, as we are doing through the community sport for all initiative. Through this program, we are supporting community sport initiatives for equity-deserving groups, in particular Black, indigenous and 2SLGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities and newcomers, to remove barriers and to increase participation and retention in sport.
Our government has always made increasing diversity a priority to ensure all of our systems reflect the diversity of Canada, and sport is no exception. I will continue working to ensure that the Canadian sport and physical activity systems reflect the diversity of our country.
I look forward to continuing to promote physical activity and encourage all Canadians, especially children and youth, to integrate and increase physical activity in their daily lives.
In budget 2023, we announced $10 million over two years for ParticipACTION's “Let's Get Moving” initiative to increase physical activity levels of Canadians who are less active, with a focus on groups who experience health inequalities related to physical activity. We are also supporting the development of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology's 24-hour movement guidelines, which provide guidance on the optimal amount of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep requirements for people of all ages.
We'll continue working with stakeholders with expertise in physical activity and health, and not-for-profit organizations supporting equity-deserving populations. This includes through the healthy living round tables, for which a “What We Heard” report has been shared with stakeholders and will be posted online shortly.
We are also taking action to address physical inactivity. Through the healthy Canadians and communities fund, we are providing approximately $20 million annually to reduce health inequalities among priority populations at greater risk of chronic diseases.
I will continue to work closely with my provincial and territorial counterparts to coordinate efforts on increasing physical activity, recreation, and active and healthy living across the country.
To support safety in physical activity and sport, our government is supporting the update of the Canadian Guideline on Concussion in Sport and other key concussions resources to ensure that everyone in Canada has the most current guidance on the prevention, assessment and management of sport-related concussions.
My PT colleagues will be included in this process. In addition, the updated guideline will be used by national, provincial and territorial sport organizations to update their own concussion protocols.
Looking ahead, I believe we have an unprecedented opportunity to develop recommendations to advance the objectives of the new Canadian sport policy. We anticipate having this new policy endorsed by all provinces and territories in 2024. The policy, which is driven by values, including safe sport, is a product of comprehensive engagement with Canadians from coast to coast to coast. Sessions were held to ensure we heard from all voices across the sport and recreation system. However, there is still more work for us to do to ensure every Canadian, regardless of age, disability, race, ethnicity or gender, can easily and safely participate in sport.
All of these efforts will progress over the coming months. I know I can count on your support, advice and candid feedback. I look forward to our ongoing collaboration.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
