National Roundtables on Future High Performance Sport Funding

REGINA , SASKATCHEWAN

April 6, 2004

Chair:

The Honourable Stan Keyes
Minister of State (Sport)

Main Themes

• Need clear performance expectations .
• Develop a culture of excellence
• Dedicated coaches/trainers/equipment specialists
• AAP should be increased to $24 K/year for Sr. cards and to $9,600 for Development cards
• Elite level sport equipment
• More c ompetitive opportunities (home and away) of a high level; need to compete against better opposition in order to progress.
• Team building (between sports with Olympic Medalists)
• Appropriate housing
• Proper nutrition
• Medical support (Physicians/Physiotherapy/
  Massage)
• Sport science (Physiology/Biomechanics/
  Psychology/Technicians)
• Research & development of new, advanced equipment and training
• Education/employment opportunities – Need to work with private sector to match athletes with companies and foster better financial security beyond athletic career.
• Facilities to train/compete
• Athletes and coaches need the same elements to succeed.
• Coaching is the single most important and underdeveloped asset of the Canadian Sport System. Elite athletes stay a few years in the system but elite coaches remain for decades.
• Coaching education system is floundering badly for being underfunded (reference to the CBET program implementation).
• Our brightest are not attracted to the coaching profession because of bleak working conditions. We need increased resources for coaches' recruitment and retention.
• Community programs depend on coaching and leadership development.
• Provide more resources to Canada Games Coaching Assistance program, the National Coaching Institute
• Need to create full-time coaching employment opportunities for Provincial Coaches.
• Need to identify our “future best” and provide them with funding support early on in their development.
• Cost of financing young developing athletes is too high and an unrealistic financial burden for most families. As a result, team sports are now struggling to find enough participants to fill the team roster.
• Increase in the number of cards, especially for La Relève, before increasing stipends.
• Importance of funding for Sport Centres
• Large pools of Aboriginal athletes are being missed by the Canadian Sport System. As a result, Aboriginal athletes participate less and are practically absent from high performance sport.
• Canadian Sport System needs to be more aware of the barriers facing Aboriginal sport participants (intentional or non-intentional racism, financial, isolated communities, cultural dislocation effect when away from home).
• Aboriginal athletes need financial, family, community and elders' support.
• Need to find new means to fund the development of Aboriginal sport participants.
• Need to work together to understand and respect other cultures and groups.
• Encourage kids to participate in sport: Coaching and leadership development, partnerships with educational institutions, communities facilities, capacity building in sport system, non-traditional partners (ex: Métis organizations) and social services.
• Need to better align the goals and work of various components of the Canadian Sport System and simplify the system.
• It is reasonable to target sports, however, there may be some concerns about enforcing a “systems alignment”, i.e. P/Ts may want to support non targeted sports that are of importance in a province or territory.
• Work closely with the Sport Review Process to determine targetting of resources to sports and athletes.
• Need for long-term development model (LTADM)
• Target priority sports, i.e. sports that have proven track records as “producers of medals”, but allow for the targeting of exceptional athletes in typically low- producing sports.
• Target sports but continue to fund all sports to some degree.
• Nurture productive coaches and centres.
• Target sports but not only on past track records but also on estimated potential (“look forward approach”). Be careful not to focus on athletes to the detriment of a given sport's system.
• Targetted sports must be adequately funded over their entire LTADM.
• Need to invest wisely in the entire sport system infrastructure, but we must also invest in our top performing sports, athletes and coaches.
• In targetting sports, we cannot treat individual and team sports the same way (it takes more resources to develop a team).
• Invest strategically, not tactically, in the health of a nation, i.e. invest in sports that will have the greatest effect (socially and health-wise) on the country.
• Target sports and leave it to NSOs on how to use these funds.
• Sport Canada should decide or take the lead
• Develop the Sport Review Process into a High Performance Unit mandated with selecting targetted sports and athletes.
• Leadership is an issue.
• Build consensus, use measurable criteria as Sport Canada has done with the SFAF.

Other Comments

• Link sport investment to improving health of society.
• We need more heroes in amateur sport. Federal level should consider a central sport communication agency (ex.: Sportcom in Québec).
• We need better coordination throughout the sport system
• We need more dollars just to maintain our results. Cost increases as more athletes meet international quotas/standards.