Good morning, Mr. Chair and committee members.
Good morning, Mr. Chair and committee members.
Thank you for the invitation to speak before the Standing Committee on Official Languages today to discuss the role the Canada Games could play in celebrating linguistic duality during the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation.
Appropriately, the Canada Games were born as a nation-building, government-led centennial project in 1967. Under the games motto, Unity through Sport, these first Canada Games in Quebec City paved the way for what is now Canada’s largest multi-sport competition for young athletes. Held every two years, alternating between winter and summer, they represent a key step in the development of Canada’s future household names. Canada Games athletes are our next generation national, international, and Olympic champions. We saw many of them standing on the podium in Vancouver 2010.
The Canada Games are a catalyst.
The Canada Games and their lasting legacies continue to be the catalyst for the growth of sport and communities across the country.
Close to 100,000 athletes representing 800 to 1,000 Canadian communities have competed in the Canada Games, with hundreds of thousands having been in qualifying events and competitions that lead to the honour of representing your province and territory on a national stage. Thus, there have been human legacies of 5,000 to 6,000 volunteers and staff at every edition of the games, enhanced legacies for coaching and officiating, and many, many other community legacies that live on to this day in over 23 communities and in 500 venues.
We are a centennial project that continues to inspire and deliver.
The Canada Games are not only a unifying force in sport, they also incorporate a cultural program and promote fundamental Canadian values, such as linguistic duality, diversity, multiculturalism, health and wellness, citizen and community engagement, the promotion of different cultures, and minority group inclusion, including athletes with a physical and intellectual disability. The games reflect those things that matter most to Canadians.
As an organization, we are committed to recognizing Canada’s linguistic duality as it is entrenched in what we do and in the core values of the Canada Games.
We are proud of the way our host societies have embraced our official languages requirements in their own communities. We are also proud to have received letters of praise from the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for our efforts in promoting Canada’s linguistic duality.
Sport must be a pillar of the 150th anniversary celebrations. Canada and sport developed side by side in this country, and Canadian sport is intertwined with Canadian culture. They cannot be separated. The Canada Games deserve to be the sport cornerstone of our 150th celebration in 2017.
The Canada Games is a unifying force for sport, governments, corporations, and many other stakeholders like no other event. We work with organizations such as the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity, Participaction, AthletesCAN, the Aboriginal Sport Circle, and Special Olympics Canada, among others, to ensure that the games are barrier-free, inclusive, and representative of all Canadians.
As fate would have it, 2017 also represents the 50th anniversary of the Canada Games movement. The country will converge in the centre of Canada for these great anniversary celebrations, in Manitoba, where we know there is important history about minorities and their impact on the entrance of that province into Confederation. We plan to once again allow the Canada Games to represent positive change and to be an exemplary leader in promoting Canadian ideals.
The Canada Games Council is exploring major initiatives that will take advantage of the Canada Games' unique positioning with stakeholders.
We are in the planning and research phase, working with a very reputable Canadian company in the Twentyten Group. Our celebration in 2017 will target and promote sport and physical activity to Canadian youth, will raise our awareness levels across our great country, and will shine a great spotlight on the 2017 Canada Games in Manitoba.
This past September, more than 61,000 children and youth from schools across Canada participated in Canada Games day events and the national school challenge in support of sports day in Canada. In the last four years, over 129,000 children have participated in our education program.
In 2017, through our expanded schools program using multimedia, social media, and in-classroom tools for teachers, we will work to reach the millions of Canadian youth who are aspiring to be on a Canada Games team. We will encourage participation in sport and physical activity. We will teach them about our country.
As we revamp and extend the learning opportunities of our successful program, we will add in a linguistic duality component that celebrates diversity, culture, and language appreciation. We will challenge each school to educate themselves on why sport and physical activity are important for our health as a nation.
We believe that national awareness rates of the Canada Games can only grow and celebrate our national potential for celebration. Through a national awareness campaign in the lead-up to the Canada Games, we will use creative vehicles, including a unique mass media mix, a public relations campaign, and national Canada Games flag and torch relay events from coast to coast to coast, culminating in the centre of Canada to showcase our past, present, and future stories, and help share the Canada Games spirit country-wide.
Our campaign would not be complete without the promotion of our changing country and those things that enrich our nation today: culture, language, diversity, multiculturalism and a healthy nation through sport and physical activity.
We will also celebrate and highlight our crown jewel and most prized opportunity, the Canada Games. No community ever hosted the games without legacies and positive change for the entire community—province, territory, or country—and 2017 will be our tipping point and defining moment.
Our cultural program will showcase history, our nation, our diversity, and our language duality. Our broadcast strategy will be promoted as never before, and we will optimize our broadcast coverage with specialized content available in both official languages nationally.
Our public relations activities and outreach will achieve unprecedented media coverage of the Canada Games for 2017 in all languages. We will feature stamps available nationally commemorating all past Canada Games, a coin collection, national and retail partners, sport partnerships, and an alumni celebration of our sport heroes from across Canada, bigger and better than any celebration before.
Much like all 150th celebrations, we are currently in our planning and development stage. Environmental scans, research and strategy development will help us ensure that our efforts have a return on investments, that our partnerships are as strategic as possible and that our Canada Games efforts will take advantage of Canada-wide initiatives and meet national objectives. It is the perfect time to talk.
In 2017, our strategic positioning and long-standing history in sport will re-ignite the country’s national celebratory culture, the way it was done through the Olympics in 2010 and will renew the drive of young Canadians to lead active healthy lifestyles.
To close, I would like to share a comment that a former prime minister said in reference to the Canada Games:
The Canada Games are about the fulfillment of dreams, and the development of outstanding young athletes. ...the...Games exemplify the many values that we share as Canadians.
The Canada Games are a catalyst.
Thank you.