Those are excellent points.
I think we have a real problem with young people in our society running astray, and we have problems with type 2 diabetes. There are lots of young people who are going to be 40 years of age and they're going to have a body of a person 75 years of age. We should be encouraging participation in things.
We support the elite programs, the Olympic programs, but that's the tail end. The grassroots is what produces that. The last Olympic team that won a gold medal for Canada had two players on the team who were graduates of our league. In the coaching system, our North American system, we've cut a lot of coaches through that league who have done very well and have contributed to hockey. So it seems to me you have to encourage the grassroots if you want things to happen. This is an attempt to get at that.
Mr. Ryan is a graduate of Notre Dame college in Saskatchewan, Père Murray's college. Père Murray--I knew him very well--brought in a lot of troubled kids from gangs and so on, took them to that little college on the prairie and turned them into leaders through good sports programs and athletics. I think it's a terrific model. It's something that may be disappearing in our society, but he got results.
I think government should be stepping up to the plate to encourage as much as they can getting our young people into good programs where there's real leadership and direction and so on. I think this is a small step in that direction, but I think it's an important one.