Bruce Arthur: Canada’s sports system is about to change. A generational investment is on the way - Toronto Star
The federal government is making a generational investment in sport in this country, and fitness and health. 'Sport is Canada's greatest nation builder.'
Speedskater Ivanie Blondin pictured at the Olympic Oval in Calgary in this 2019 file photo. This summer, Canada announced that the Oval was part of a broader investment into sport infrastructure.
Bruce Arthur is a columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @bruce_arthur.
In February of this year, on the final day of the Olympics in Milan, the Canadian Olympic Committee issued a plaintive call for funding, saying Canada’s sports system was in decline. In March, the Future of Sport in Canada Commission, chaired by former Ontario chief justice Lise Maisonneuve, delivered a final report that painted a dire picture of the state of Canadian sport.
Often things move glacially in Canada. Not this time. In April, Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden announced a $755-million investment over five years, plus $118 million per year toward Canada’s sports system, on top of the then-annual budget of $210 million. We have lots of announcements in Canada, though that one felt different.
Well, Canada’s system is about to change. National federations and organizations were asked to reapply for increased federal funding in June, on an expedited timeline, from an increased pool of approximately $112 million on top of the existing annual total of $210 million. The money clearly had to be cleared with the treasury, quickly. Monthly payments to about 1,900 federally funded high-performance athletes were already increased, and soon — perhaps even by the end of the month — federations will find out how much money they will receive.
“Sport is Canada’s greatest nation builder,” said van Koeverden. “We are prepared to release those amounts imminently.”
Canada’s Valerie Grenier speeds down the course during a women’s World Cup giant slalom alpine skiing event in Kronplatz in January.
Van Koeverden said Alpine Canada, for instance, will receive an extra $2.8 million to $8 million total next year, but will also announce a private-sector partnership with Capital Power in what the federal government hopes will be a model for other sports. The criteria for increased funding weigh heavily on participation rates, safe sport, organizational capacity and high performance.
Nation building, too. We are in an era where sports can be both soft diplomacy and patriotism. It’s part of an ambitious push that is being termed playgrounds to podiums.
“The reality is, we’ve got to allocate money to where there is exceptional but also feasible long-term positive impact for Canadians,” said van Koeverden. “The notion is that Sport Canada has served an elite sport context only, and my vision for Sport Canada is that every Canadian will benefit from these investments.
“I would like to see a much stronger contribution to our GDP from the sports sector, because the knock-on effects of a growing sports sector that’s healthy and strong and well-invested has … exceptional knock-on effects for our national identity, for Canadian pride, for nation building, for our health, our fitness, our mental health, our social cohesion, the strength of our communities, public safety — I could go on, but that only works if we scale it, and we can only scale with everybody at the table.”
