Canadian Heritage committee  May I make one comment, or...no?

Canadian Heritage committee  Okay. I think we do need to stimulate more, to get more boys into figure skating. Our CanSkate program is 75% girls and 25% boys. We want to attract more boys to the sport of skating.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think from a sponsor point of view that corporations today are looking for relationships that they can extend in community. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was all about events, but now corporations want to be able to talk to their 500 Canadian Tire stores. We in sport need to be be

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, I’ll add to that. The top of the funnel is not bad; it's the bottom and the middle of the funnel. It's getting more coaches who are highly skilled to get those kids up to the next level so we can win those medals. I think that's a huge piece. I do like the comment about f

Canadian Heritage committee  There's one thing you could help us with. We have the strongest team ever going—close to the Calgary team. I shouldn't say “ever”.

Canadian Heritage committee  The Calgary team was awesome, but we have one citizenship issue. We have a woman by the name of Piper Gilles, and she's been waiting for her citizenship for a year and a half. Everyone says it's on its way, but you could help us with that. That's one. She has a chance to make the

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't think it's a problem. We're expecting that she will get citizenship any day now.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's after Sochi, right.

Canadian Heritage committee  It would be nice.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll start, but Liz, jump in. We have 1,200 clubs across Canada and we have a skating club in every community across Canada. They're driven by volunteers, and we want to celebrate that. So when we visit across Canada for the 100th, we're going to create skating shows and there's

Canadian Heritage committee  That's great. Thank you. We're very excited about the upcoming 100th. I don't know if the committee is aware but the Governor General of Canada has a long history with Canadian figure skating and the Canadian championships. The first Canadian championships were created by Govern

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, as you know, we pride ourselves at Skate Canada in having a program called CanSkate. It teaches 125,000 kids who are 5 to 15 years old how to skate. But there are 5.5 million kids in that age group. So there are lots more kids out there who can learn the joy of skating. We

Canadian Heritage committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair. My name is Daniel Thompson, and I am proud to be here today as the CEO of Skate Canada. I'd like to thank the committee members for their interest in hearing more about the preparation of our athletes for the upcoming 2014 winter Olympic Games in Sochi,