Thank you, Madam Chair.
My name is Bob Nicholson. I served as president and CEO of Hockey Canada from 1998 to 2014. I will do my best to address your questions regarding my time there.
Let me say up front that the allegations about the incidents at the 2018 gala and at the 2003 world junior tournament are an outrage. That kind of conduct has no place in our game or our society. I hope that both cases are investigated fully and that justice is done.
When I was CEO of Hockey Canada, I led an effort by our organization to improve player safety and prevent abuse of the kind we saw involving Graham James and the terrible experiences that Sheldon Kennedy and others bravely shared with us. Sheldon's testimony and those of the other victims demanded a real reckoning for our sport.
I believe we've made progress, becoming one of the first national sports organizations to work with Respect Group, beginning with programs aimed at coaches, officials, trainers and administrators, and later growing to involve parents and players.
I am grateful that I am still close with Sheldon and the others who were involved at that time. I'm proud of the progress we've made. It is clear that we didn't go nearly far enough, particularly regarding off-ice conduct. It is, perhaps, the failure to see that then that brings us here today.
As a sport, we all have a lot more work to do to ensure that we have a culture in hockey where everyone feels safe and welcome. This will require commitment and real action, not just nationally but also at the regional and provincial levels. I am hopeful that the work that Hockey Canada is currently doing, as well as the efforts of this committee and others, will make the game safer for everyone involved.
During my time as CEO, Hockey Canada's role was to develop and deliver programs to its 13 member branches across Canada. These branches are regional governing bodies that operate with their own volunteers and boards to deliver programs to over 600,000 youth across Canada.
As CEO, I had three priorities. My first priority was safety. We had to make the game much safer on the ice and address things such as hitting from behind. The game was suffering, and corrective action was needed.
My second priority, one that is important to me personally, was addressing the issue of sexual abuse. At the time, we were focused on players who had bravely come forward to discuss abuse they had experienced from coaches. The work we began with Respect Group grew out of those efforts. It was important work, but I must say I regret that there was not more focus on off-ice player conduct and on the culture of silence that appears to persist to this day.
My third priority was to restore the financial health of the organization. When I took over as CEO, Hockey Canada was in financial distress and largely dependent on government funds. We set a goal to improve our finances. We did that by developing partnerships and other new revenue sources that helped expand our programs while keeping participant fees relatively flat. We also put in place risk management mechanisms, including the insurance funds that have been at the centre of much of your work.
I am pleased to read in the Cromwell report the following comment:
The establishment of reserve funds to address the risk of uninsured and under-insured claims is not only sound, but the failure to do so would be a serious oversight.
It has been more than eight years since I left Hockey Canada, and there may be details I can't recall or to which I don't have access, but I can assure the committee that I'm here in a spirit of openness—