National Roundtables on Future High Performance Sport Funding

HAMILTON , ONTARIO

April 7, 2004

Chair:

The Honourable Stan Keyes
Minister of State (Sport)

Main Themes

• The sport system needs financial sustainability. Consider tax reforms to encourage partnerships with the corporate sector.
• Need a strategy to sell the benefits of sport to corporate Canada . Need to listen to what companies and corporations expect from their involvement in sport.
• Need $40-50 M to be added to the High Performance System.
• Over the years, funding for officials' development and support has been reduced by 90%.
• Educational sport facilities should be used more productively. Federal government should partner with P/T departments of education to solve the problem.
• Higher Athlete Assistance stipends and better coaching.
• Increase support for travel to international competitions and events.
• More cards are needed. Sr. Cards should be increased to $22,000 annually and Development card to $10,500.
• Junior athletes are not ready for the transition into senior international competitions. Sport Canada should consider partnering with P/Ts to support scholarships and bursaries programs for these athletes.
• Get behind public speaking opportunities for athletes (ex.: Esteem Team). They create useful work skills for athletes and allow athletes to inspire and motivate Canadian youth…”
• “Minister Keyes needs to meet directly with Canadian High Performance athletes and Athletes CAN should be part of that process”.
• Athletes should get more money from the government, but it should be a job: public speakers and role models for Canadian youth. Their job is not just about winning medals but about being role models too. Bring all parties together to create a sophisticated motivating athlete public speaking system to give to the amateur sport. (ex.: back to their local community)
• Athletes need $30-$50 K to travel in a season.
• Need more mentoring for apprentice coaches.
• Need to support our best coaches so that they can travel with their top athletes.
• Need more money to retain our best coaches in Canada or to attract the best coaches from other countries.
• The Sport Canada cap of $55K for coaches' salary is too low.
• Volunteer system is overtaxed and cannot bring us to the next step in high performance.
• “La Relève Program” started this year by Sport Canada is a great initiative, a step in the right direction. We must increase our efforts to identify good athletes at a younger age and provide those rising stars with more financial support and services.
• It is important to fund the developmental years of athletes. Pressures should be put on P/Ts to do a better job in that regard.
• Domestic level programs are part of the High Performance pyramid and right now, numbers are dropping even in the more popular sports.
• Given that there are so few Aboriginal athletes on National Teams, any discussion on how to maximize existing high performance dollars precludes Aboriginal peoples from participating in the dialogue.
• Aboriginal Peoples have been working towards their high performance goals and their efforts are taking shape in the long-awaited Sport Canada Policy on Aboriginal Peoples' Participation in Sport (January 2004).
• There are two key mechanisms that can help facilitate these high performance goals: the Sport Participation Development Program (SPDP) and the F-P/T Bilateral Agreements. These two initiatives are the best guarantors that Aboriginal Peoples will have more opportunities to participate in elite sport beyond the 2010 horizon.
• The SPDP should be opened to Multisport/service organizations like the Aboriginal Sport Circle (ASC). NSOs receiving SPDP funds towards increased opportunities for Aboriginal peoples should be asked to demonstrate serious consultation, linkages and partnerships with the Aboriginal sport community, the ASC.
• All F-P/T bilateral agreements need to have a clearly articulated Aboriginal sport component written in the body of the document.
• Targetting investment is wise. However, would be concerned if targetting were not balanced between winter and summer sports.
• Leadership, including coaching leadership, is the best investment you can make.
• Targetting makes sense but flexibility is needed when comparing individual and team sports. Team sports are more expensive (ex: $12 K for a team to go to one event).
• Target funding to reward success .

Other Comments

• Sport could be part of the Canadian identity but it is not at this point.
• Sport is a positive life experience with many beneficial social and health spin-offs. Increase partnerships between the departments of health, sport and physical activity.
• “Minister Keyes, take the red tape out of sport, engage your colleagues in the field. Get them involved with athletes and with sport federations”.
• If we make an investment now, we are doing nothing more than investing in our future by reducing future health care cost down the line.
• New immigrants value sport: after their place of worship, sport clubs are the most common place of attachment.
• We need tax reforms. There are more incentives in the USA for the corporate sector to be involved in sport.
• In the USA , companies provide flextime to their athletes.
• Government could help broker partnerships between sports and businesses, by helping with the donating businesses' “public image”.
• Sport and physical recreation are a profession and an industry. We must do a better job at recognizing and promoting that concept.
• Federal government should look at marketing strategy of sport and recreation and what it means to Canadians.
• Sport Canada , the COC, NSOs and athletes must work together to decide what or who to target with new High Performance funds.
• Stop loading just the front end of the system, i.e. senior international performers. We need to target younger athletes too and CSCs should play a role in that.