Canadian Heritage Committee on Dec. 12th, 2023

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

We're a little delayed on that, but that's fine.

You mentioned that provincial and territorial governments are looking at the Canadian sport policy. That's kind of interesting because it's a jurisdiction issue that we've all seen and heard in other departments in this country.

I see we have health officials here.

We're one of the worst countries in the world for physical activity and it does fall under this minister's prerogative. How are we going to get people active?

[Nancy Hamzawi, Executive Vice-President, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Thank you very much for the question, Madam Chair.

We are working very actively in a number of areas. First, we're supporting and developing public health guidance, working with organizations like the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, which issues the 24-hour movement guidelines that continue to be updated.

We deliver grants and contributions programs for people through the healthy Canadians and communities program, which is $20 million annually. There's Participaction, which is another great example in terms of where we're providing funding.

We're monitoring very closely the data that shows that, yes, physical activity is not as high as we would like. Less than 20% of adults—that's 18- to 79-year-olds—

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

I fall into one of those.

[Nancy Hamzawi]

—meet physical activity recommendations, and less than 50% of children and youth.

When you look at it in an integrated way—physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep—one in 10 children meet the recommendations. We have more work to do. We're very much focused in terms of monitoring the data and continuing to work through our programming and our guidelines, as well as working with our colleagues in sport—our provincial and territorial counterparts and indigenous communities.

We're doing everything possible in terms of bringing the 2018 common vision for increasing physical activity, the “Let's Get Moving” agenda.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

It is, but how do you monitor this?

Come on, I used to be a school board trustee. We no longer have phys. ed. in schools for God's sake.

[Nancy Hamzawi]

I think we still have phys. ed. in school, knowing that one of my children is in—

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

You may have it, but my division doesn't.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

It's not mandatory anymore.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

It's not mandatory. Right.

[Nancy Hamzawi]

In the space of monitoring and data—and I can turn to my colleague—there are a number of areas where we're quite active. There's the physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep indicators, which you can find online. Our Health Infobase is the repository for all that information. We're looking at further advancing some of those indicators, getting more disaggregated and making sure we have a good pulse in terms of where there are particular populations at risk that we need to continue to support further and refine our policies and programming in order to get to those particular populations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have five seconds left, Kevin.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

I go to Mr. Noormohamed for the Liberals, for five minutes.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

There is something that I wanted to to clear up for everyone. I might not even take up the whole time.

One of the things that Mr. Green spoke about was this whole notion of the production of documents. I want to be very clear that we, Parliament, cannot force the production of documents. I want to make sure that we are not creating in people's minds a degree of power that doesn't actually exist to compel things like the production of documents. If I misunderstood what Mr. Green said, he'll have the opportunity to clarify that I think.

What I got from this was an implication that somehow this wouldn't be able to go far enough, that we wouldn't be able to get to where we need to go, and that somehow, we, as parliamentarians, might have a role in trying to manage this in terms of this notion of the production of documents—going into a coach's filing cabinet, etc.

Can you put people's minds at ease as to what powers do exist under these types of commissions and which do not, so that people actually understand what we are able to do and what we are not able to do?

[Isabelle Mondou]

The commission is going to be able to require any paper that they feel is necessary to their work. That includes, on a voluntary basis from the provinces and the territory, because the federal governments doesn't have jurisdiction over the provinces and territories. It is going to approach them to collaborate.

I think the minister alluded to the fact that, if there were some organizations that we're funding that she feels are not collaborating, she hasn't taken off the table the other measures she could take, including with our funding power.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

You've been asked about the future of the sports commission, but also immediate actions. I want to try to understand why we're doing some of these things now, before having seen the findings.

I think this is a very interesting point of view because it presupposes certain things. The minister said this isn't about whether terrible things happen. We know terrible things have happened.

Can you take us through the rationale for running some of these things in parallel, and what that means and why? What motivated that decision?

[Isabelle Mondou]

I think the minister feels, and we all feel, a sense of urgency to take action in some aspects. For example, she mentioned the transition of OSIC to a more independent body or function. I think that's something she has heard from athletes, and she wants to act as quickly as possible.

Obviously, the commission will make further recommendations. These will be taken on board by the government, but all the actions she announced yesterday are things she feels she can start to work on because she feels the need is there now.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

Thank you very much.

Whatever time I have left, Madam Chair, I will cede to you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

Now we go to Sébastien for two and a half minutes, please.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for allowing each party to take the floor for the duration of their turn.

Ms. Mondou, you stated a few times in response that the terms would be announced by the minister. The minister announced an independent investigation. That said, if she can keep changing the terms, how are we expected to believe that the process is truly independent? It's true, the minister is the main architect of a number of initiatives that currently exist in Canadian sports.

[Isabelle Mondou]

Thank you for the question.

I think I misspoke. The fact is that the terms that were made public will be that of the commission. The minister won't modify them. So the independence aspect comes from the fact that each one of you will be able to monitor the commission and ensure it's carrying out its mandate independently from the minister.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Will there be a conflict of interest declaration? I'm thinking of the minister's husband who works at viaSport in B.C. There could be a connection. If we look at the provinces, I think that this kind of information should be made public.

Are we currently looking into a process?

[Isabelle Mondou]

Thank you for bringing that issue to our attention. We will pass it along to the minister.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

I'd like to come back to another element which I believe to be absolutely fundamental.

Can we get a confirmation that all of the sports organizations and multi-sport organizations like Own the Podium and the International Olympic Committee have truly released the athletes and organization members from the non-disclosure agreements the athletes are bound by?

From what we understand, a lot of people are still tied up in court. And here we have a commission that's looking into these issues voluntarily. This could really put the brakes on the commission's work, and even put this voluntary commission's very existence in question.

How do you intend to protect the victims when they testify, and most of all, how will you ensure that sports organizations cancel the non-disclosure agreements binding the athletes?

[Isabelle Mondou]

Thank you for the question.

Actually, that requirement was already part of our contribution agreements for this year. It's already a funding requirement for the organizations. They wouldn't be able to get funding otherwise.