Evidence of meeting #74 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 safe.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:25 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Coaching Association of Canada
It's a challenge. When you look at the sports sector in general and the rotation of staff through sport, in some instances it is an entry-level position. It's not uniform, so we need to address that and codify and document exactly the process to ensure that it's adhered to.
11:25 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Coaching Association of Canada
OSIC can contribute to policies. These are early stages.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you.
Now I'll go to the Liberals and Tim Louis for six minutes, please.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Tim Louis Liberal Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to thank all of the witnesses for being here for this important study as we move forward.
Perhaps I will start online with Ms. Gassewitz.
What are the challenges of having national sports organizations, provincial sports organizations and territorial sports organizations setting those standards for safe sport?
We've heard in previous testimony that there are concerns about minimum standards. As long as an organization has to tick a box, that's good enough. Can you start with the baseline standards you'd like to see for sports organizations provincially, nationally and territorially, and expand on what you'd like to see?
11:25 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Sport Information Resource Centre
You identified one of those big challenges. In a country as large as ours with as many sports as we have at the national, the provincial, the territorial and the community levels, there are a lot of challenges. Alignment is one of those, where it's trying to get.... Once you have a policy consistently making it through the system and across the country to the different sports, I think that becomes one of those biggest pieces.
When it comes to communication, people and organizations receive information differently, and there are different players. You need to have some of those consistent baselines, which is what you referred to.
Having a consistent policy is that first step. At least everyone has the rules and the policies that go in place. Those basic rules and those policies should be across the board. From there, it goes to the education. It's no good having a policy that just sits on a shelf. It needs to be shared with all the members, all the people within any of the organizations and across all of them. Then it needs to be evaluated and continued—that reinforcement.
If you're looking at those different stages, you have to have that baseline that we all have as a minimum standard. Then we need to really focus on communication, and it needs to be relevant to that sport and that region, whether it's our territories or B.C. or anywhere. For athletes, for parents and for board members, there are different types of communication. Communication is critical to keeping that messaging consistent so that it's repeated over and over again. Hearing it once is not enough. It has to come different ways so it makes sense. Then it has to be evaluated. Is it working? This is a whole dynamic process. What's working and what's not? Take the lesson and then reapply it. I think those are key.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Tim Louis Liberal Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
I think that was very thorough: a consistent policy, education, evaluation and then communication.
All of that would require data monitoring, so how can we make sure that we have the data that's out there? How can we make sure that we get that data and allow those steps to happen?
11:25 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Sport Information Resource Centre
You're right. That is such a critical opportunity. I would equally refer to it as we are getting a lot of data, but that is an opportunity going forward to make sure that we have consistent data collection working with our researchers and being mindful—because it's very time consuming to try to capture it—of how to collect it. You can set a consistent way of data collection, making sure that it's open for people to be able to study, that people can report back and that the lessons can be shared. I think working with our research community, working with all the sports and having consistency in how to collect, being mindful of timing, are just so important, especially if we're going 10 years forward, as we're looking to. We're trying to learn and evaluate, but to make it easy so that we can capture the data and we can learn from it.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Tim Louis Liberal Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Thank you.
I'll address Ms. Lafrenière.
I appreciate you being here. In my riding of Kitchener—Conestoga, we have the Wolverines, which is the women's and girls' hockey association U15 B team. It is led by all-women coaching. One of the Wolverine's coaches said she had a female coach in her last years in minor hockey and that gave her the confidence that she could be a coach herself. Now she's sharing her talents, her values, everything she's learned and her experience by coaching these young women.
Players describe the experience as comfortable and fun. In a study as serious as this is, hearing those words is inspiring. They see the women coaches leading. I know that's making a positive difference, probably in their sports and in their lives as well. It's that “if you can see it, you can be it” mentality.
As far as training, certification and leadership groups, what exists and what can we do to expand on stories like this about diversity and having more women as coaches?
11:30 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Coaching Association of Canada
Thank you, Madam Chair.
First of all, thank you for sharing that story. We need that storytelling to happen across the country to get more women and girls engaged in leadership. We know that in the national coaching certification program, it hovers around 65:35, males versus females accessing the training and intervention. We also know from data at the Olympics and Paralympics how dramatically reduced it is for women in coaching positions. We try earnestly to work in these areas. Diversity in coaching is so important, and it's the broad spectrum of diversity.
We have a partnership with the Black Canadian Coaches Association to offer apprenticeship programs. We have a partnership with the Aboriginal Sport Circle, where we support its apprenticeship programs at Canada Games. We have a women's Canada Games apprenticeship program, where we benefit from great success at those events.
It really is about the priority of the system to tell stories and to offer positive opportunities for safe sport. Diversity is the key to safe sport.
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you, Ms. Lafrenière.
Tim, your time is up.
I now go to the Bloc Québécois. I hope it's Mr. Lemire.
Is it Sébastien?
11:30 a.m.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I thank all the witnesses for their testimony.
Ms. Bahen, do you feel that Hockey Canada has changed its culture in terms of transparency and accountability?
11:30 a.m.
Managing Director, Charity Intelligence Canada
It changed in December 2022, when it posted its audited financial statements. After all the investigation and after all the pressure, that was not a willing decision. It took a new management team. That kind of attitude is pervasive at the minority of charities and sports organizations that see their finances as their own business—nobody else's business—and do not recognize themselves as being public charities.
11:30 a.m.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
In the course of our work, we have put questions to representatives of Hockey Canada and the Canadian Hockey League, which represents three leagues, particularly to explain the relationship between the two organizations. We wanted to see the contracts, but we have only seen one, and I would like the clerk to follow up with those organizations so that we can see all their contracts.
We have had access to the minutes, but there was no mention of secret funds that may have been used to settle sports misconduct or sexual assault cases. The existence of such an agreement is not disclosed in the financial statements. In addition, neither the previous nor the current board of directors have been following up on that agreement.
There have been two junior championships since the scandal broke. There is nothing in the minutes about expenses and revenues or about profit sharing. I don't feel that the money that was provided by the federal government is being tracked. Until recently, documents were not being turned over to Canada's Business Registries.
In my opinion, not much has really changed. Yet the minister has decided to restore funding to Hockey Canada. In your opinion, is this a good decision and was it made at the right time?
11:35 a.m.
Managing Director, Charity Intelligence Canada
Everything you say there, sir, is exactly correct. There is such a culture of not being transparent. All of these sports organizations that are large need to be financially transparent. All of their assets, all of their dealings and all of their related-party transactions need to be provided.
Just listening today to the work that's being done in safe sport, it's difficult to reconcile whatever the Sport Canada funding is for Hockey Canada with the immense needs of other organizations to do safe sport if this is a government priority. Hockey Canada doesn't need the money. It has $98 million in the bank. As it said itself, it has “deep pockets”. It has millions and millions of dollars, and other organizations across Canada need funding to do critically important work.
11:35 a.m.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
All in all, the agreement was reached amicably between Minister St‑Onge and Hockey Canada. The details are not really known. In particular, we're relying on a study by the law firm Henein Hutchison Robitaille that has not been made public, so we don't know what the recommendations are.
The Cromwell report has some pretty solid recommendations, which I applaud, but overall, I feel like only an independent public inquiry could really shed light on how this organization is run and whether there is a healthy and safe follow‑up to the coaching of athletes. In addition, it is known that most of these athletes play on Canadian Hockey League teams that would not necessarily be required to abide by the agreements that Hockey Canada signs, including its membership in the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner.
Could you elaborate on that? Minister St‑Onge says that Hockey Canada is not being given a blank cheque, but are we giving the minister a blank cheque if we don't respond to this news and trust her or Sport Canada or any of the organizations that report to it? Ultimately, this is still done in a vacuum rather than in a transparent and public way. What do you think?
11:35 a.m.
Managing Director, Charity Intelligence Canada
I believe the Cromwell report was exceptional and extraordinary in the in-depth work of looking at the issues at Hockey Canada. The Cromwell report made 39 recommendations, and so far six of those have been acted on. The Cromwell report was the third governance review since 2016. He noted that there had been other reviews where the recommendations hadn't been adopted.
At some point, you can make recommendations, but if these aren't implemented, it seems a bit premature to go ahead and turn on the taps and turn on the funding, especially given Hockey Canada's prominence across Canada and how many children and youth are affected by its programs.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you very much, Ms. Bahen.
I think, Sébastien, you have finished your time. Actually, no, you started a little bit late, so I'll give you another five or 10 seconds.
11:35 a.m.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Thank you.
Sport development organizations are often not-for-profit organizations that enjoy this recognized status in amateur sport. However, we realize that, in many cases, a lot of people are making a profit.
Do you feel that the level of transparency is adequate? Is the legal status of these companies the correct one, particularly in the case of organizations like Hockey Canada or, in the circumstances, Canada Soccer?
April 17th, 2023 / 11:35 a.m.
Managing Director, Charity Intelligence Canada
The level of transparency in Canada is woefully inadequate. We are so far behind other countries, such as the U.K., Australia and the U.S.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you very much, Ms. Bahen.
Now we go to the New Democratic Party and Peter Julian.
Peter, you have six minutes, please.
11:35 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair. I hope to also have a few extra seconds like my colleague Mr. Lemire.
I thank the witnesses for joining us today.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Mr. Julian, I think the only reason I gave the extra time was that Ms. Bahen hadn't turn on her mike.
