Mr. Speaker, while our athletes made all Canadians proud during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the Conservatives' cuts may well compromise the media coverage of our top amateur athletes' performances by forcing CBC to cut its sports service to almost nothing.
May I remind the minister that participation in sports by young Canadians is at its lowest and that one way to fight the epidemic of obesity and physical inactivity among young people is to encourage them to be inspired by our greatest amateur athletes? By cutting this media coverage, we are preventing young Canadians from identifying with our amateur athletes, who are role models for living an active life and participating in sports.
The cuts imposed on CBC will jeopardize programs like Sports Weekend, which could have a huge impact on amateur sports coverage in our country. The Canadian amateur sports community is rightly worried, and many of our Olympians have signed a petition to urge Conservatives to stop their attacks on our public broadcaster.
After all our athletes have done to represent us so well and with so much pride, the least we can do is give them the coverage they deserve.