Evidence of meeting #41 for Canadian Heritage in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was players.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
I want to follow up on an angle of Mr. Waugh's concerning the database and a registry of individuals. I want to confirm the following with Mr. Smith: According to your minutes, Hockey Canada specifically and deliberately opted out of that aspect. Is that correct?
President and Chief Operating Officer, Hockey Canada
Are you referring to the database of the universal code of conduct?
President and Chief Operating Officer, Hockey Canada
Could I trouble Mr. McCurdie to answer that? I believe that when he was with us he may have been in those discussions. I don't know the answer to that.
Conservative
President and Chief Operating Officer, Hockey Canada
I do know the answer of where we sit today. I have made reference earlier to our clear intention of being a full signatory to the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner. I can't go back into history and account for what our decision was potentially at that time and what might have influenced our decision that was documented in the minutes at that time. I apologize.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
That's fine, but that's again going back to the history and the culture of the organization. These decisions were made in the past and now you're playing catch-up. You're trying to fix it.
Since March 19 of this year, how many times has the Hockey Canada board of directors met?
President and Chief Operating Officer, Hockey Canada
I believe it met in March. It met again in late April and after our member forum in the early part of May. It met again around our year-end congress. I believe it's had other meetings; it's just that those are the main ones that are typically in the schedule.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
The fact is that we have not received the minutes from those meetings. Why not?
President and Chief Operating Officer, Hockey Canada
Those minutes are yet to be approved.
Conservative
President and Chief Operating Officer, Hockey Canada
No, I would say it's typical that there is a lag period for our minutes to be approved. That's not abnormal. We will have no problem sending you the minutes you require once they are approved.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
I would hope that would be the case. It's rather convenient that those have not yet been approved, considering the timeline that those—
President and Chief Operating Officer, Hockey Canada
As I mentioned earlier, it's not abnormal for us to take a period of time to approve the minutes.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
Perhaps that is a governance issue that needs to be addressed more broadly in addition to the other governance issues that are obvious issues.
I want to go back to the Henein Hutchison report. You had just mentioned, in response to a previous questioner, how you've been working on this for some time. I want to quote to you from the Saturday, January 22, 2022, minutes of Hockey Canada, as follows: “The Henein Hutchison report will be reviewed when we meet in-person during the March 17-19 HC board meeting. The recommendations from the HH report will become priority work, with the new staff dedicated to safe sport, and an action plan to address them will be developed.”
Why? Why was this only becoming a priority on Saturday, January 22, 2022, when you've had the report since September 2018?
President and Chief Operating Officer, Hockey Canada
The reference to January 22, 2022, was related to recommendations that would be undertaken by our new head of safe sport. At the time we were hopeful, albeit maybe too optimistic, that our director of safe sport would be in place by early March. Natasha Johnston, our VP of sport safety, joined the organization on the first Monday in May, which I believe was May 2.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
I want to very quickly address the Hockey Canada Foundation.
Mr. Andrews, can you confirm once again that you were not, and the foundation was not, made aware of these allegations from 2018 until you learned about it in the public record?
Sorry, sir, you're on mute.
Chair, Hockey Canada Foundation, Hockey Canada
Sorry, it's been two hours and 45 minutes on mute.
We had not been made aware until the public was in May. I can confirm that.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
Thank you for that. I think that again reflects a challenge with the governance structure within Hockey Canada.
These are the last two comments I want to make. There was a commitment you made earlier in the meeting about the interim recommendations of the Henein Hutchison report, as well as the range of salary bonuses that are provided to Hockey Canada officials. I'd hope that this would be available by the end of this meeting. Can you confirm whether that would still be the case?
President and Chief Operating Officer, Hockey Canada
Thank you, Madam Chair. I wish to confirm for the members of the committee that those already have been sent.
