Good afternoon. Thanks, everyone, for inviting me and for conducting this very important study.
Madam Chair and committee members, I'm happy to be here to represent the Canada Games Council and the Canada Games movement.
I'll give you just a brief overview of the Canada Games, recognizing that perhaps not everyone is super familiar with what we do and who we are. We are the mini-Olympics for youth in Canada. We alternate between summer and winter, every two years. Approximately 40% of the athletes representing Canada in Beijing at this time are Canada Games alumni.
There's a funding model for host societies that actually organize the Canada Games and there's also a funding model for the Canada Games Council. We are the franchise holder and I'm here on behalf of the franchise holder of the Canada Games movement as well as host societies. Host societies are funded primarily by governments—57% by governments—and where they're struggling right now is with self-generated revenue, such as from ticketing, sponsorships and grants, etc.
I also want to acknowledge that we recognize that the entire sports and events sector has been drastically affected by COVID. Our organization is probably doing better than some of the other national sport organizations that rely on membership fees and event revenue for their operations. The host society, however, does rely heavily on event revenue and sponsorship solicitation, so we wanted to be here to explain some of those challenges.
As the franchise holder of the Canada Games Council, we were very thankful to be recipients of the Canada emergency response benefit as well as the wage subsidy and the rent subsidy. Without these subsidies, our organization wouldn't have been able to make it through. Our host societies, however, were not quite as fortunate as we, as the franchise holder, were. They were able to access the wage subsidy and the recovery program, which has now turned into a tourism and hospitality recovery program, and a rent subsidy, but because these were short-term programs, they were not eligible for the same level of benefits as we were at the Canada Games Council.
We also want to thank the Government of Canada for giving some additional money to our 2022 host society out of the Sport Canada program budget.
When it comes to key challenges, we want to highlight the postponement. For the first time in Canada Games history, we had to postpone the Canada Games. The host society at that point was at 24 staff, and they had to shrink to six staff for an additional year. There were a lot of mental health challenges, and obviously enduring this situation has been stressful. As well, all of the planning volunteers have had to commit to an extra year to deliver this project.
Our organization has implemented a mandatory vaccine policy, and with that will come additional implementation measures to ensure the safety of Canadians. It has taken a lot of work, additional rigour, time and resources to move that forward.
When it comes to money, the host societies have been experiencing revenue loss, from loss of private sector sponsorship, reduced ticket sales and lack of opportunity for community engagement. Those of us watching the Olympics right now can see that the stands are empty. That has a massive impact on an organization's budget. In addition to revenue loss, the hosts are seeing expenses increase. Food costs and supply chain issues are having a big impact on the ability to deliver the Canada Games within the existing operating budget. The cost of insurance has gone up. The cost of transportation has gone up substantially, and medical expenses have increased largely due to the pandemic and the additional safeguards required to make sure that everyone participating in the games is healthy.
We're also experiencing volunteer fatigue, and there's a significant risk in the participation of our provincial and territorial teams. They have challenges in training, competing and selecting teams for the Canada Games.
With respect to what we're asking for or what we'd like you to consider, we have three main points. We wanted to talk about financial security, support via participation, and media awareness and advertising.
When it comes to financial security, we need to protect the Canada Games against economic losses. The Canada Games has never experienced a deficit in Canada Games' history, and we need to keep it that way to strengthen our brand and to make sure that we have communities that want to host the games. In the short term, we need to make sure that the host societies, which are temporary organizations with immediate needs, are considered for emergency and recovery funding, and right now they're not. For the short, medium and long term, the Canada Games Council, the franchise holder, needs to have the ability to have continued funding and human resource support.
We want to make sure that the government supports the Canada Games through media awareness and advertising, and promotes our games with support from federal, provincial and territorial bilaterals to enhance sport participation.