Canadian Heritage Committee on July 26th, 2022

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

I wonder whether the people currently in office are the right people to truly carry out the plan we submitted to them and to make sure that the entire organization supports and implements these new recommendations.

I seriously wonder about the members of senior management. I hope they will provide us with the answers tomorrow and tell us how the same people who were there in 2018 and in 2020 are the right people to make the changes, when their handling of the events of 2018 was truly disastrous and their first appearance was completely lacking in transparency.

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

Will you have a conversation with Sport Canada at some time to up your game, the Sport Canada game—which needs to follow this important meeting today—and follow up? Will you do that quickly?

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

I intend to complete this work by the next funding cycle, that is, by April 2023.

I want to review all of the contribution agreements. I also want to review Sport Canada's capacity to do adequate checking to ensure that the organizations are meeting the requirements formulated by the department to ensure athletes' safety.

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

Mr. Martel has 25 seconds. Go ahead.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

You have 26 seconds.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

You have said this about Hockey Canada, but I can't understand how you can trust the existing senior management after what we have learned so far.

I would like to know whether you are prepared to clean house in that regard.

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

I never said I trusted them.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

If the opportunity arises—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have five seconds left in this question, Mr. Martel.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

—would you be prepared to clean house regarding senior management at Hockey Canada?

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

I am urging senior management to do what they have to do to improve representation on their executive committee and board of directors, in order to ensure that women have a very strong voice and presence in the decision-making process, among other things, and in terms of how to implement the changes.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

I'm going to the next person for five minutes. It's Michael Coteau for the Liberals.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I want to start by thanking—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Excuse me, Michael. I just want to say that it will not be five minutes. Because you lost your two and a half minutes before, I'm going to give you seven and a half minutes.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you very much.

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

Madam Chair, I absolutely do not agree.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Madam Chair—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Well, because of technical difficulties, Mr. Coteau was not able to finish, and we told him that he could come back and make up that time. That's only fair in my book.

Thank you.

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

That part of the meeting was already over. This is a new meeting now, and the extension shouldn't be given in this case.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Madam Chair, thank you so much for your generosity but five minutes will be fine. I appreciate the generosity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Minister, I want to start by saying thank you for your testimony today and for the acknowledgement of the crisis in sport across this country and the issues. In addition to sexual violence, there are issues around racism and equity, but we also know there are issues around mental health in sport.

I got to see a glimpse of the complexity of the sector myself when I was the minister responsible for sport and for the delivery of the Pan Am Games back in 2015. It was astonishing to see the extent of responsibility and the complexity of sports organizations. There is the challenge of not only jurisdictional pieces, but also of holding organizations compliant based on the fact that a lot of their funding comes from outside of government. A lot of money flows from many different places into these organizations.

Make no mistake: We know that governments have tools and the minister has tools to ensure that organizations are doing what's best for the folks they serve.

Minister, what is your next move to ensure that sports organizations in our country are transparent and accountable, and that these organizations follow what we as Canadians see as the best pathway to ensure that we raise the next generation of athletes in a way that Canadians would be proud of? What's your next move?

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

The first thing will be to make signing on with the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner mandatory for all sports organizations that are funded by the federal government. We are doing this so that athletes have a place where they can file their complaint and explain their situation. Professionals will be able to conduct an investigation and impose sanctions or make recommendations concerning complaints. Obviously, the goal of all this is to improve the sports system in Canada to make sure that athletes and witnesses feel that they are able to speak, that they must speak and report cases of assault and abuse. Our other job will be to review the entire funding system.

As I explained, the connection between myself and the sports organizations we fund are the contribution agreements. Using those agreements, we are going to raise the governance, transparency and accountability threshold. We want to make sure that the recommendations made by the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner are actually implemented within sports organizations and that this produces results.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you.

At the end of March, you acknowledged that there was a crisis in sports in this country. At the end of the day, we're all here to ensure that we create an environment that allows young people to excel in sport. If you go to any hockey arena or soccer field and watch young men and women play sports, you can see there is definitely a disconnect between what they're feeling and the complexities that we can build within systems.

What does the future look like to you, Minister? If you had anything to say to the young athletes in this country, what would you say to them directly?