Mr. Speaker, I want to correct a false impression that was left in the minds of Canadians as a result of an article that appeared in a national newspaper on July 23. The article implied that the government is spending more on the Francophone Games of 1997 than we spent on the Olympics in Atlanta. This is false.
In fact Sports Canada provided $615,000 to send our team to Atlanta, but it also provides $20 million annually toward the athletes' preparation programs and more than $7 million in direct assistance to our carded athletes.
Since 1992 the government has spent almost $115 million aimed at Olympic sports organizations and their athletes. That is over 40 times the amount we are spending on the Francophone Games.
The upcoming games in Madagascar are also an opportunity for our athletes to start preparing for the next Olympics. That is what happened in 1994 in Paris where Bruny Surin won the gold medal in the 100 metres and Donovan Bailey won the silver.