Canadian Heritage Committee on May 11th, 2023

[Charmaine Crooks]

My understanding is yes, it has been. It's an honour to serve, absolutely.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Ms. Crooks.

I'm wondering, in the past 10 years that you have been on the board, whether there were pecuniary advantages to this presidency. With past presidents, in your term, were you aware of any pecuniary advantages that they might have benefited from?

[Charmaine Crooks]

I am not familiar with any of those advantages. I know that I will continue to serve in this role as a volunteer.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Ms. Crooks, you've been with this organization for a long time, and I'm sure you've faced many of the challenges we heard about—I was here—in the testimony on March 9 around equity and around gender discrimination. I wonder if you wouldn't mind sharing what challenges, in your 10-year tenure, you ran into on equity and transparency, and whether you feel that some of those challenges have been removed with the loss of some of the leadership.

[Charmaine Crooks]

I believe we have an opportunity to reset the organization. I also strongly believe that through our safe sport roster and the new progressive gold standard that we want to lead to, we will be in a better place.

My leadership is one that is very open and working very closely with the team. For example, when I was on the board for many years, it was very different, but I also know that it takes time to understand an organization and to be in a position to make that positive difference. I want to be the type of president for the organization who gives back, who listens and who truly engages all the partners. I have had the opportunity to do that over the past few weeks. As I mentioned, trust, transparency and open communication are the things that I believe in, and those are the things that I believe this role provides an opportunity for the organization to do.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Ms. Crooks. I see that you have a clear vision of what needs to be done.

I'm really trying to understand the cultural barriers within the sport organization that didn't allow some of that leadership and some of your vision to break through over the past 10 years. What were some of the barriers and the challenges you faced that didn't allow this to happen in the last 10 years? I think you were the vice-president before, for many of those years.

[Charmaine Crooks]

I was vice-president for a year.

I believe that decisions are made collectively. There have been a lot of times and a lot of opportunities when individual voices had a chance to share and a chance to contribute. I feel that I've had that in many ways, and I'm giving that even more to my board. That is a style. I strongly believe that this is the start of the work, not the end, and this new direction should yield more of that trust.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

In that vein—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Excuse me. I'm sorry. Whoever on the floor has an open mike, can you please mute it?

Thank you.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

It could be me.

In that vein of change, it seems that it was common practice within Canada Soccer to conclude with oral agreements rather than written ones. I'm wondering if you have any plans for governance changes that are needed in regard to more than just a gentlemen's handshake, and more of some actual written governance and expectations there.

[Charmaine Crooks]

I agree that we will continue to build on all of our governance policies, as mentioned earlier—posting our minutes and having better structure, better involvement and better engagement from all the members. I've already started to work very quickly on how to engage more athletes, with a players' council and an alumni association built in. I came through that, and as an athlete I know how important that voice is.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you. This is my last question.

When I was here last, I was asking about who had seen and who signed the documents with the business agreement that was made. As a board member, did you ever see those documents before signatures were put on them?

[Charmaine Crooks]

I saw most of those documents before the signatures were there, but from what I understand, there was an administrative oversight when it came to the finalization of signatures on those documents.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Ms. Crooks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You know that you have a little less than a minute left.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

I'm going to ask, then, about the equity and the funding. I just want to talk a bit about gender equality and discrimination. It shows that 39% of Canada Soccer funds were invested in the men's national team and 18% in the women's national team. Was that ever raised before you became the president?

[Charmaine Crooks]

It wasn't.

In terms of some of the inequities that are happening, as you know, we are now fully committed to pay equity. For any member of our national team looking at program equity as well as pay equity, we are deeply committed to that.

With that, we will have a women's team that is the second-highest-paid team in the world. As Canadians, we can all be proud of that opportunity to show gender diversity throughout the organization. Whether it's for player pay, whether it's board members or whether it's looking throughout our membership, equity and diversity—DEI especially—will be an even stronger part of that moving forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

We now go to the second round. The second round begins with the Conservatives for five minutes, please.

Mr. Martin Shields, you have five minutes, please.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the witness for being here. I have some questions and will probably go quickly.

You referred to talking about decision-making with “we”. Does that mean in the past as a board and in the future as a board?

[Charmaine Crooks]

In the future we will.... The board.... Of course, I am president, but I have a style that works very collaboratively and depending on what.... The decisions, again, always rest ultimately with us, but—

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Then it's a “we”. Are you saying that the board in the past didn't operate as a “we”, but you used that as “we” made decisions in the past?

[Charmaine Crooks]

When it comes to decision-making with any board, it is “we”. We work together through collaboration.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thank you.

You said you'd used your voice in the past on this board. You talked about respect in the organization. When we talk about the CSB agreement, you seconded the motion for that agreement.

[Charmaine Crooks]

I don't recall seconding that motion. I'll have to look at that, sir.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

We have it here. If you seconded that motion, did you read that agreement?