Canadian Heritage committee  It's certainly not unique to winter sport. I've worked in a number of summer sports that have a strong Asian connection. Certainly I've seen a very strong corporate connection in Asia. A number of teams or sports are adopted, if you like, by the corporations. Samsung is a good ex

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, I certainly agree. Sometimes it's not a direct connection with government, it's more inspiring and creating the environment for corporate Canada to jump on board. To Elizabeth's point, times have changed, and our amateur athletes are seen as icons and figureheads. We are get

Canadian Heritage committee  That's correct. It's really a funding alignment issue: the regular ice-time cost now for a club is about $200 an hour. Things are getting very expensive for people to get into sport. Getting some stronger alignment, whether it's federal-provincial and then provincial-municipa

Canadian Heritage committee  Why don't we let Tim go first.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's the same in speed skating. We're good to go.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Dubé. We're in a good place right now relative to the current national training centres. We have a fairly good club system that provides a feeder process. Going forward, we have a concern about the longevity of our training facilities, particularl

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, briefly is a challenge. Clearly, we pride ourselves on having a world-class program in terms of our coaching support and our infrastructure. That's the first thing. We've made a huge commitment to that over many years, which, quite frankly, a lot of sports do. Through the h

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much. I will be brief, because I know we're all really here to talk to Elizabeth.

Canadian Heritage committee  First, let me thank the committee for this opportunity to provide you with an update on planning for the Olympic speed skating team program leading up to Sochi. With less than 70 days remaining before the opening ceremonies, we are now in our selection and competition preparatio