Evidence of meeting #88 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 athletes.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Okay. I would encourage you to. Other sports federations have started putting that on their websites. I think it would be a good practice.
Mr. Adams, I don't know if Sail Canada has any coaches who have been suspended or terminated for these types of allegations, but do you have a national register of coaches?
Chief Executive Officer, Sail Canada
We do, yes. We had one case back in 2014. That coach is banned for life.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Would that be available to everybody on your website, so that nobody would be erroneously...? I see Mr. McGugan nodding, so I assume that's the case.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Perfect.
I have a question for you. I don't like getting into disciplinary questions, but you had a very public issue recently when you terminated Lisa Ross. I just have a few questions about that.
Wouldn't it be true that when Ms. Ross was terminated in March, she was the only coach in the high-performance group of nine who was a woman?
Chief Executive Officer, Sail Canada
She was the only woman, but we don't have a high-performance group of nine. We have three national coaches who are male. We have three contract coaches who are male. Each of those positions is tied into a particular funding source. As you know, Own the Podium funds certain groups. Some coaches are tied to Own the Podium funding. Some are tied to just Sport Canada funding. Some are tied to other funding partners we have—
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Basically, they all come from your budget. Basically, you're funded. The funding from Own The Podium or Sport Canada doesn't tell you to hire coach X with this money.
Chief Executive Officer, Sail Canada
Yes, they do. With Own The Podium, we have to say that this particular coach is going to be coaching this particular athlete. We have a mutual agreement that this is the right coach for this athlete, and that funding is tied to that coach.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Okay. Let's get there.
Was Ms. Ross...? You're saying she was tied to a specific funding. We've spoken to Sport Canada. They've said that there has not been a cut in your funding at this point, and there's every expectation that funding will be continued next year.
What fund was she tied to? You've stated.... Let me start again. You stated, publicly, that she was cut due to funding.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Can we agree that she was not cut due to performance issues?
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Okay. What specific funding was cut that was she tied to?
Chief Executive Officer, Sail Canada
It wasn't funding that was cut. The gender equity funding, which was in place when we hired Lisa in 2020, was sunset in 2021. That was a gender equity fund. That was promoting women in sport, which is a very crucial issue. We had funding for that program. We had a line item that said we could fund this particular coach as a high-performance coach.
Chief Executive Officer, Sail Canada
It's been sunset, or whatever you call it in terms of government—
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
It's been sunset, but the funding is still there until such time—
Liberal
Chief Executive Officer, Sail Canada
We stopped getting that money at the end of the fiscal year 2022. We kept Lisa on for another year through some other funding that we were able to get, again, through the government funding, which was called “return to sport” funding. We had a line item there that also said we wanted to continue the position of a female coach. That funding, again, wasn't cut, but it is not available this current year, so we had to make the decision—
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Would you be able to provide to the committee, in writing, just what funding you're saying she was tied to that was cut?
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
It seems strange based on the information I had.
Let me just continue on. She alleges that she told you she was pregnant on March 8, and she was terminated nine days later. Is that true?