Mr. Chair, let us move on to serious things. The way the government treats Canadian athletes is not serious. They deserve more respect than to be talked about once every four years.
I watch and I completely agree that Olympic athletes are an image of Canada, Quebec and all the other provinces. I have some questions for the minister of state for sport.
First, I would like to explain my knowledge of sport to the minister. I come from the world of sports. I climbed up the levels in mountain biking to become world president in 1991. From 1981 to 1992, I represented Canada as president of the Canadian Cycling Association. Thus, I know both elite and developmental sport, as well as the ministers who preceded this minister, including, of course, the hon. member for Outremont who is present in this House, and the minister, who was then the hon. member for Bourassa.
We succeeded in bringing the World Anti-Doping Agency and several world championships to Canada. I always asked myself why the government was so little involved with assisting athletes with potential.
Sport does not consist only of our elite athletes, certainly not. When I look at the elite athletes who just competed in Athens and who won medals, who took to the podium at the Paralympic and Olympic Games, very few of them have trouble attracting major financial sponsors who will help them continue until Beijing or wherever the summer Olympic games will be held in 2012.
I have some questions for the minister. I am looking at the document called Canadian Heritage: Estimates 2004-2005. I am on page 5; it is very precise. Under the heading “Development of excellence in the Canadian Sport System” $60 million has been budgeted for 2004-05. For 2005-06, this amount drops to $10 million. That is a $50 million hole in the funding for our athletes. Worse yet, in 2006-07, it remains at $10 million.
Thus, the $30 million the hon. minister has found for the athletes is non-renewable. That is very important. It is only a one shot deal. But, oops, as the hon. members opposite might say, what does the minister intend to do to restore the $50 million the athletes will lose? Unless, of course, the figures in the document before us are not correct.