Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll try to keep my remarks brief. Really, I'm just going to speak to the highlights of the brief, if I can.
We've been quite consistent. I think you heard from one of my colleagues in Calgary, Mr. Dale Henwood, on Tuesday about the role that we believe the federal government can be playing in the upcoming years as it relates to sport in Canada. There are two particular things that we have identified as being key activities for the federal government, and we'll be requesting that the committee bring forward as a favourable recommendation, in this year, at least the first of these two items.
It is our position that the federal government has played a leadership role in international sport, and has in particular played a leadership role in international development through sport. I believe Ms. McDonough would know of the good work of Dr. Bruce Kidd in creating a venue in which sport can be a tool for community and individual development.
There's also a role for the Government of Canada in international sport as it relates to how our athletes and the teams of Canada compete and excel and reflect the nation on the international stage. Again, I think the Government of Canada has done an increasingly strong job over the last six or seven years in terms of preparing our teams with a view to 2010, and particularly a strong job in preparing teams on the winter sport agenda. Where we have yet to complete the work is as it relates to athletes, coaches, teams, and young people who represent our country in terms of summer sport.
I think about the rowers in St. Catharines who are up at five o'clock in the morning and are preparing to represent the country, who are travelling to Victoria to take up residence through the winter months in order to continue their competitive training. I think as well of our divers in Montreal, our swimmers in Quebec City, and how effective a job we're doing in helping them to represent the country on the international stage. Of course, being here in Halifax, I think about the paddlers who are out on the lake, again looking for flat water and the opportunity to represent their country.
The work has been done to prepare the policy framework and the plan. In fact, we brought home Alex Baumann, whom I understand you'll see tomorrow, to lead the implementation of that plan on behalf of the nation.
The favourable recommendation that we're seeking is to increase the Government of Canada's budget, through Canadian Heritage and within Sport Canada, by an additional $30 million on an annual basis. This would allow the government to complete the development work in the public–private partnership called Podium Canada—where the corporate sector has become significantly engaged—and would allow us to move into a second stage of policy work that I'd now like to speak to.
I've framed that second stage here as looking at what we talk about as the new economics. This is moving beyond the government as spender and into what the enabling policy activities are at a fiscal level that the government can take on, that support the 34,000 local, non-profit, community sport organizations that really are the lifeblood of Canadian sport. They create those Saturday mornings in the hockey arenas. They create the opportunities for young people here in Dartmouth and at the north end of the city. They're the groundswell of Canadian sport.
What we have yet to do is create for them the fiscal tools to completely maximize their potential. We don't have a designated infrastructure program, nor do we have the kinds of charitable tax measures that would allow for capital fund development. We have yet to do the complete work in greening sport, yet we know that technologies made in Canada are available to us. We have yet to maximize what we can do to engage the corporate community through the kinds of incentives that we do see in European nations.
So our second recommendation is to strike a blue-ribbon panel or a committee of Parliament that could look more closely at the economic underpinnings of Canadian sport. Do so in advance of the games in 2010, so that post-Vancouver and post what we think will be a marvellous occasion for all Canadians, we'll have a new economic framework in which citizens, corporate Canada, government, and donors can be full partners in the Canadian sport enterprise.
Thank you very much.