Thank you, Dr. Fry, for the question.
This is an issue that's near and dear to my heart, because, as a former mayor of Ottawa, I understand one of the challenges that face municipal governments, particularly when it comes to the upkeep of recreation facilities and arenas and pools. As I pointed out, nationally there's an approximately $15-billion infrastructure deficit for sport and recreation. The kinds of facilities that many of us grew up using are reaching the end of their lifespan, and we have to do something about that, because we're competing with a lot of different interests that kids have today. If we don't provide modern, clean, proper athletic facilities, they're going to go do something else that's probably not as good for them in terms of physical activity.
There are a couple of things I think the federal government can do. I sit in these committees at the provincial level and meet with stakeholders, and sometimes I feel like an automatic teller machine after I've met with groups. There are always people coming and looking for money. There's no question there's a need for federal participation with respect to a sport and recreation infrastructure. We met with former Minister Stephen Owen in Regina in August of two years ago at the Summer Games, and he undertook that he would go back and come forward with a joint federal-provincial infrastructure program. In the interim, the election occurred.
We've had meetings with Minister Chong, but we haven't received a clear signal as to where the federal government is going with respect to sport infrastructure. I do commend the government on the sport and fitness tax credit. I think it's a good start to try to break down some of those barriers, because for those of you who have children in amateur sports, it's very expensive. You're sending kids out and a lot of time and financial resources are required to make sure that this child gets to swim meets or hockey practice and so on.
There's a need. The statistics are pretty staggering in terms of the number of facilities that are reaching their lifespan. I think in Ontario 13% of hockey arenas are 50 years old and older. There are lots of centennial projects around the country--centennial pools and centennial halls and so on. I'd like to challenge the federal government. Let's start planning now for some sesquicentennial projects eleven years from now. Next year is the 40th anniversary of 1967, and in ten years hence it will be the 150th anniversary. What a great legacy it would be for provinces, municipalities, and the federal government to be able to start planning now to open some of these facilities in 2017.
If I could just mention one other thing that we recognize in Ontario, there are financial obstacles for groups to get involved in extracurricular activities because of rental fees. We recognized that early on in our mandate and we created the community use of schools program. It's $20 million and it's money that helps to subsidize the use of schools after hours and on weekends. What was happening was because the school boards were tight for cash, they would try to make up for it by jacking up the rent of gymnasiums and so on in schools. This has now brought down on average the rental fees in Ontario schools by 70%, and in 26 of our 72 school boards they've eliminated the fees altogether. These buildings were paid for by taxpayers, yet they were closing up after school and weren't open on weekends, and they have wonderful gymnasium facilities.