:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good morning. I'd like to thank the members of this committee for inviting me to speak today. With me to take part in the discussion is Lane MacAdam from Sport Canada. Marcel Aubut and Caroline should be joining us any minute. They are on their way.
Like most Canadians, I love sport. I believe it is part of our culture and part of our identity. It has the ability to bring us closer together and instill national pride.
In my role as the Minister of State for Sport, I have been lucky to spend my time supporting our elite athletes on the field, rinks, and hills across Canada. It is incredible to watch the determination and pride that wearing the maple leaf brings to our athletes.
In 80 short days, sporting fans from across the world will focus on Sochi, Russia, as our elite athletes pursue their dream of standing atop the podium.
As we sit here today, our Canadian athletes are in the final stages of preparing to give their everything at the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi. This is a good time to discuss how ready we are and how well we expect to do.
Our government does not shy away from our record investment in sport. Through Sport Canada, our government is working to ensure that our Canadian athletes have the tools they need to reach their goals in the pursuit of sporting excellence.
Since being elected, our government has been working with our partners to provide our athletes with a strong support system that includes access to high-quality training environments and world-class coaching. The government is also working with national sport organizations to create opportunities to host international competitions on home soil, helping our athletes concentrate on training to achieve their podium dreams.
The Government of Canada supports Canada's sport system and our athletes with an investment of nearly $200 million a year through Sport Canada's three key programs: the sport support program, the hosting program, and the athlete assistance program.
Since coming to office, our government has invested nearly $990 million in the Canadian high-performance sport system, making the Government of Canada the largest single contributor to sport in the country. I would also like to point out that this funding represents an increase in support to the Canadian sport system of 52% since our government has come to office.
This support has allowed Canada to emerge as a leading sport nation. It has provided our athletes access to cutting-edge sport science and research, it has allowed our athletes a world-class training environment, and it has allowed our athletes to receive the best coaching in the world.
Our government has invested over $153 million into winter sport over the last four-year winter sport cycle. This is an increase of over $25 million, or a 20% increase, since the last four-year cycle prior to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and Paralympic Games.
Furthermore, this would be an increase of 112% since the four-year cycle prior to the 2006 Winter Games in Torino.
Our government wants to ensure that no stone is left unturned and our athletes are able to do what they do best: win.
The sport support program is our primary funding vehicle to support Canada's national sport organizations, Canadian sport centres, and multi-sport service organizations. The annual budget of more than $140 million funds initiatives to encourage sport participation and programs for high-performance athletes, and it includes targeting funding to help our athletes fulfill their Olympic and Paralympic dreams.
While our government is working with our partners to allow our athletes to succeed, we're also working to ensure that Canadian athletes are competing fairly and clean.
I recently announced Sport Canada's annual funding to the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport to fund anti-doping initiatives such as athlete testing and an anti-doping hotline. In 2013-14 this will amount to an investment of $5.9 million.
The hosting program supports the efforts of Canadian communities to host such international sport events as the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver and the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games, which will take place in the greater golden horseshoe region.
Hosting these sport events in Canada benefits our athletes, inspires Canadians, creates jobs and economic opportunities in the host communities, and leaves a legacy of improved sports infrastructure. Our athletes gain valuable competition experience on home soil and benefit from new and improved facilities that allow them to train further and prepare to win for Canada at international competitions, including the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games.
Finally, I would like to highlight for the committee that our government is providing direct funding to our top athletes, to help with their living and training expenses as well as post-secondary education. This allows them to concentrate on their athletic training. Through this program, we are providing $28 million every year to support more than 1,700 athletes. It is the largest source of direct financial assistance to athletes in Canada, helping our athletes to train full-time in the lead-up to the Sochi Winter Games.
Alexandre Bilodeau, Maëlle Ricker, and Josh Dueck are just three of the well-known athletes benefiting from this program. As you will no doubt remember, Alexandre became the first Canadian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal right here in Canada, at the 2010 Winter Games. It was the first of the record 14 gold medals for our Olympians that year. And the 19 medals earned by our Paralympians in Vancouver showed the world that our athletes can compete with the very best.
As Canadians, we are proud of our country's success as a leading sport nation. That is why, as a government, we are proud to support our athletes and help them achieve their podium dreams. Their success inspires us all, including our future Olympians and Paralympians.
l'm pleased to report that in the four years leading up to the games, our government has done as much as it could to help our athletes and teams reach the podium in Sochi. We are working, and will continue to work, closely with the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee, and Own the Podium to ensure that our funding is putting Canadians atop the podium.
In just a few months, Canada's best winter sports athletes will compete against the world's best, and Canada has ambitious goals for success. Our Olympic athletes have set a high goal for themselves, hoping to achieve the top spot in the overall medal count. Our Paralympians are determined to finish in the top three in the gold medal count.
The 2014 Sochi Winter Games promises to be an exciting event for all Canadians. It is an opportunity to promote our culture and our values of openness and fair play. It is a chance to affirm our reputation as a leading sport nation. It is an occasion to come together as Canadians to support our athletes in their pursuit of excellence.
l will now be pleased to respond to any questions you have.
Thank you. Merci.
:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Honourable members of the committee, it is my pleasure to appear before you this morning to talk to you about our Canadian Olympic team's preparations.
[English]
Thank you for the invitation to join you today.
[Translation]
You may be surprised to learn that the Canadian Olympic Committee, or the COC, is the most significant source of private funding for high-performance sports in the country.
[English]
This is not to be confused with the Government of Canada's tremendous role as the country's largest contributor to sport. Without question, continued strong and stable government and private sector funding are critical to our success today, tomorrow, and well into the future.
[Translation]
On behalf of Canadian athletes, coaches and all national sports federations, I want to thank Prime Minister Harper, Minister Gosal—who is here today and is a good friend of mine—and Minister Flaherty for this substantial support. That being said, our athletes and coaches need that support to remain as consistent and as strong.
[English]
On top of performance expectations for these games, the goal of the Canadian Olympic team is to contend for the top spot in overall medals.
[Translation]
In Sochi, the Canadian Olympic team will try to change history and make Canada the first host country to win even more medals at the next games. That is something that has never happened. This objective is ambitious and will not be easy to reach, but that is how we like our objectives. Courage and ambition are needed to achieve excellence.
[English]
We know that the Olympic Games are a matter of national pride in many countries, and sport is becoming more and more competitive all over the world.
We now see that for the first time there are as many as five countries all within striking distance of that top spot; there is very tight competition. One or two medals may make the difference between finishing first and finishing fifth. As we know, anything can happen at the Olympic Games. Often it's not necessarily the best athlete who wins, but the one who is most prepared to compete and win in the Olympic environment.
This is why the Canadian Olympic Games preparation initiative and mission team—that is the team behind the athletes—has been working for the last five years to leave no stone unturned in preparing for Sochi.
[Translation]
The COC has done everything for the Canadian athletes to have the best possible conditions in order to perform to the fullest of their potential and talent during the games.
This is the first time the winter team is going to Sochi after having a full tour of all the preparation programs in place. We have never been so well equipped.
[English]
Our Olympians who are heading to Sochi will be the first Olympic winter team to have gone through a full cycle of our games preparation program, which I will describe to you today. This is critical, because the Sochi games will be the largest games ever, with more sports, more competition, more athletes, and a lot more attention.
We anticipate that we will send our largest winter team ever, with more than 215 athletes and 90 coaches, with a supportive team of 550 people.
[Translation]
A team of 550 Canadians is going to Sochi.
[English]
Second, we will have the greatest number of rookie athletes. That creates part of the complexity, the unknown. They are there for the first time.
We are sending the greatest number of team members to Sochi for the greatest number of familiarization visits.
This one is important. We have the greatest number of facilities to operate. We have to operate ten different facilities in Sochi. Because of all that complexity, we will need the greatest number of mission team members ever.
I am also pleased that, due to the cooperation of various groups, for the first time ever, every single athlete will be subject to doping controls before leaving our soil.
We do all of this because we know it makes a difference to performance, especially when a fraction of a second or one point can make the difference between a medal and no medal. There is an absolute science behind the preparations we undertake in partnership with the athletes, coaches, and national sports federations.
[Translation]
Our greatest strength and expertise lie in listening to our athletes and their coaches and acting accordingly. That has helped us see how different the Olympics Games are from the competitions our athletes generally participate in. Those are two entirely different things. That is why some athletes have amazing performances at certain major competitions, but not necessarily at the Olympic Games.
[English]
I mentioned earlier that these games would require us to deliver the largest mission operations. Here are some examples. For the first time we have chartered a whole ship to take 145,000 pounds of Canadian products and equipment, valued at $3 million, to Sochi.
[Translation]
This is the first time we are doing that.
[English]
We will be distributing 60,000 pieces of team clothing in over 550 bags, and hopefully these bags will come back home, not only with red and white clothing but also with the colours gold, silver, and bronze.
We have transmitted 22,500 pieces of data to register the team for the games.
We have looked at every aspect of the uniqueness of these Olympic Games and have systematically delivered the program against a background of all those elements in order to best prepare our athletes and coaches. These preparations include heightened media attention, preparation, and increased family and friends services. They also include team building and using other Olympian champions to inspire and motivate the team.
[Translation]
That way, we are making sure that the whole Canadian Olympic family will be well prepared to support our athletes in Sochi.
[English]
I mentioned earlier that we will manage ten facilities. Three of those facilities are the Olympic villages where our athletes will live: the coastal village, the mountain village, and the endurance village. There will be more complexes than there usually are.
[Translation]
In those three villages, the Olympic Committee will provide some very diverse services.
[English]
The village is also where Canadian athletes come together to meet each other, share stories, and get advice from COC athletes services officials, who are all Olympians themselves. It was in the athlete lounge, if we remember, in Vancouver that our famous Sidney Crosby was playing table tennis with his fellow teammates from sports other than hockey.
[Translation]
Canadian athletes will also benefit from the famous second home program in Sochi. That program was developed by the Canadian Olympic Committee to provide the athletes with a very comfortable and family-like environment.
[English]
We will provide the physical preparation and recovery area for the exclusive use of the Canadian team in the village with a complete health and science clinic filled with an expert Canadian health team.
[Translation]
The support team includes physicians, therapists, operations staff, the communications group and the RCMP security personnel.
[English]
There is a wellness centre that is very important because it provides a calm and relaxing environment on site.
Again, this is an example of the unique things we offer to the team. We know it makes a difference. We remember Vancouver and Joannie Rochette's coach, who was the pillar of her strength and who used this to turn around the situation that Joannie was facing. We know the rest of the story about her performance.
[Translation]
Our health and wellness specialists will help our athletes remain focused on performance, rather than on the numerous distractions associated with an Olympic environment.
We also have a centre devoted to technology and performance.
[English]
This centre includes the video analysis technology to capture and analyze all Canadian Olympic team performances.
[Translation]
Of course, we have a high-performance gym in Sochi with the same equipment we have at home.
[English]
Canada Olympic House will be the main hub for everything Canadian at Sochi: from medal ceremonies to corporate partners, and activation and management offices, all mainly for the family and friends of the athletes to make sure they focus on their performance and forget any distraction.
[Translation]
You can imagine that the task is huge and that I cannot tell you more about that today. This is just an overview of the incredibly important preparations at play.
For the Canadian Olympic Committee, these games are by far the most expensive and the most complex to date, but thanks to your support, we are ready to compete fiercely for first place. Our goal is winning.
[English]
Thank you for your attention today. I'd be happy to answer any questions with my colleagues, the chief of sport—she is the boss of sport of our country—and the executive director of communications with the Canadian Olympic Committee, Dimitri Soudas. I'm very proud to be with them here today.
:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to start by thanking the minister and the president of the Canadian Olympic Committee for taking the time to be here to talk about preparations. We all appreciate the enormous efforts that are going into preparing for these games.
I'm pleased to have an opportunity to talk about these preparations from the point of view of inclusive Olympics, so that all athletes, their families, and spectators can feel free to participate in the Olympic Games. I want to start by noting the very positive work the Canadian Olympic Committee has done in promoting an inclusive Olympics.
The challenge for these Olympics is that they're taking place in Russia, which has recently passed a law known as the anti-gay propaganda law, which, as I'm sure most people are aware, makes any public discussion or demonstration of pro-gay ideas illegal. Individuals and organizations are subject to fines and detention and non-Russians to deportation and a ban from returning to the country.
This morning I've asked the committee to circulate two posters. I wonder if those could also be made available to the minister and the witnesses. I'd like to ask very specifically about these posters.
The anti-gay law in Russia has already been enforced against Russians and non-Russians alike, including an individual who held up a handmade sign saying, “Being gay and loving gays is normal. Beating gays and killing gays is a crime.” The individual was arrested and fined for holding up that sign.
Non-Russians, including a Dutch delegation from Groningen who were visiting their sister city, were arrested, detained, fined, deported, and banned from Russia for three years. So we have clear examples of this law being applied.
I have a specific question to the Minister of Sport. These posters, which I'm not sure he's received yet, prepared by Fondation Émergence de Montréal, depict two male hockey players kissing and two female snowboarders. These posters would be illegal in Russia, and if any of our Canadian participants chose to display these posters they would potentially be subject to the anti-gay law. Or if an athlete with a same-sex partner wishes to celebrate by kissing their partner, as in the poster, this is also illegal in Russia.
I'd like to ask the minister specifically what is Canada doing to make sure that all Canadian athletes, families, spectators can participate freely and fully in these games?
:
Thank you very much, committee members. On behalf of Martin Richard and myself, from the Canadian Paralympic Committee, we're absolutely thrilled to be here on what appears to be the eve of a terrific experience in Sochi.
I'd like to make a few opening comments in terms of the Canadian Paralympic Committee as different from the Canadian Olympic Committee. Clearly our view is that we ought to be the world-leading Paralympic nation, and we view that through a focus on both high performance—that would be the support of our high-performance athletes, games teams—and also a development stream, because you cannot acquire the heights of greatness in Paralympic domination and results without a strong system and an aligned system leading up to that.
Our Paralympic athletes train hard. They compete with intensity and push the boundaries of human achievement. They are athletes first and they do it for athletic achievement, competition, and they are driven by their passion. Every Paralympic athlete has an inspirational story.
The Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games were Canada's best ever winter games in history, as Canada placed third in the gold medal count, with 10 gold medals, and 19 medals overall. As a result, Vancouver was a catalyst in Canada for Paralympic sport and a time when we saw increased funding and resources for Paralympic athletes, and that continues to this day.
So our Sochi team is better prepared, with an increased number of training camps, augmented support for our coaches, increased competitive opportunities, augmentation to equipment, and technical expertise for sport medicine and science.
For Canada to be world leaders in Paralympic sport we must continue to invest in the critical areas of athlete recruitment, athlete development, and athlete retention, as well as supporting the fundamental leadership of our coaches through all of that. Clear momentum and energy has been established to support the Paralympic movement moving into Sochi.
If you'll move to slide 3, it's again a bit of an overview of what we do. With the tremendous support of the federal government and many of our corporate sponsors, this is probably the easiest way to describe what our business is and the scope of what we provide. In the far left cluster entitled “Grassroots”, that really details the type of programming that encompasses things like awareness, first exposure to sport, almost a “see it, try it” for basic skills, and particularly the focus will be on building and exposing participants to fundamental movement skills.
The next block in the middle we term “Next Generation”. Once fundamental movement skills and exposure to some of the basic sports have been provided, that's when we really increase the level of expertise, sport, and technical leadership to support the athlete to further hone their interest and capability within each sport. Again, you can see a number of the programs we provide support for, such as the equipment, the coaching program, funding directly for our athletes, and also sport science.
On the far lefthand side is our Paralympian program, our national team program, and this is what we'll be focusing on today for Sochi. Clearly this is where our national teams come in, where we provide support and partnership with our national sport federations for coaching, competition opportunities, IST, sport medicine and science, and also research and development. We don't do this alone. Throughout the presentation we'll be speaking about our partners, two of which are beside us right now. We call them our performance partners. They are Own The Podium, the Coaching Association of Canada, and Sport Canada.
In listening to some of the questions before in terms of what are some of the barriers or challenges, it is clear that one of the largest challenges is system alignment and coordination. There's a tremendous amount of talent here in Canada, and the real key, especially for the leadership and at the national levels, is to be able to coordinate and align our efforts to optimize what we can do.
Turning to slide 4, we'll get into Sochi, which is what we're here to talk about today. From March 7 to March 16, our Canadian Paralympic team will be over in Sochi, Russia, to compete in six sports. There will be alpine, biathlon, Nordic, sledge hockey, paracurling, and snowboard, for the very first time in Paralympic history.
At the bottom of the slide you'll see a phrase encased in the quotes. It's “Perform in the Moment, Take Pride in the Journey”. This has been a guiding principle throughout the games.
In fact, it was developed by Canada’s chef de mission, Ozzie Sawicki, who is both a previous coach and a technical director in the area of sports. It's really to give the intention that everything counts, all athletes are there to do their best, and the journey is as important as the result.
On the next slide, which speaks to current standings—and I know Anne and her colleague Joanne will be reviewing the results and standings in more detail—we would like to make one particular point, which I think is different for the Paralympics going into Sochi.
As you can see, Canada is listed five rows down. After the 2012–13 season, Canada currently sits fifth overall in the gold medal standings. If you pay particular attention to the countries above, you will see that the difference of just one additional gold medal would push Canada into third standing. If you ask what would make the difference, it’s performance, the environment over in Sochi, and again, as our Olympic colleague spoke about, there has been rehearsal after rehearsal for this moment. You can see the difference that preparation and support will make, because one gold medal is the difference between fifth and third position.
On the next slide is our performance objective. Our performance objective for Sochi is as it was for Vancouver: to place in the top three nations in gold medals. Anne will speak about the details later.
This goal was established in collaboration with our performance partners Own the Podium, Sport Canada, and our national sport organizations. It's an aggressive and ambitious goal, but we feel it is attainable.
On the next slide is a thumbnail of the Team Canada summary. We have approximately 110 accredited team members and a total of about 20 additional team members off-site, just outside of the village. You have heard lots about accreditation, but you only get so many tickets, so you use those tickets very carefully.
The question to our sports, our athletes, and our coaches is, what will make the difference in optimizing your performance? It's those answers that help us decide who gets the accreditation to be right in the village and on the sites. There are going to be approximately 46 athletes overall, and in five of the sports, six guides accompany those athletes.
In terms of qualification, two team sports, curling and sledge hockey, have already qualified. As with our Olympic colleagues, the remaining four sports do not qualify until about mid-February, so you can see how problematic that is as the qualification occurs. It's as if you planned a trip to Florida; you would much prefer to plan three or four months in advance, because there certainly is a cost when you know you only have four or five days for what ticket, what plane, and when you are going to leave.
For the four remaining sports, that's in essence what we have to be prepared for—part of the cycle, part of the qualification—and that's part of our planning to be ready for this.
We have medal potential for athletes in every single sport. In fact, many of the athletes who have been previous gold medallists in some of our prior games are returning.
On page 8 is a listing of the full set of enhanced team services. I know you have heard a lot about this from our Olympic colleagues. We work hard. We don't do this alone. We do this in collaboration with our performance partners every step of the way, so the preparation of not only what we do but also how we work together is well rehearsed.
Listed are games operations, medical support, security—of which there were a number of questions this morning—IST, which is our sports science and technology. We take people over to videotape performance. We have a particular software called Dartfish. By the time the coaches and athletes get off the hills or off the side of the rink, they have a full-scale analysis broken down with our sport medicine people and our coaches, to be able to review the performance so they can review, revise, and plan for the next day.
Communications is a very large part of this. The question asked earlier was, “What would make the biggest difference?” The answer is communications and promotions.
My colleague Martin will address that. We're in a bit of a different situation. In fact, we took the bold move of acquiring the rights, and Martin will provide some additional details.
Friends and family are absolutely critical. At Sochi there will probably be a much smaller group than at Vancouver. But again, it's no less important. We will establish a Canadian Paralympic house in two sites, so that friends and family can join the athletes, the coaches, and the team members while over there to support them throughout their journey.
On VIP and partner hospitality, again, our partners support us 365 days of the year, and this is the set of 10 days for the games that all of our partners will be joining us in Sochi. We will probably look at two waves. At the front end, with the opening ceremonies, there will be a program for our partners so that they'll be able to meet our athletes, be exposed to many of the sports and certainly some of the preliminaries, and then we'll have a second wave on the back end, where the second group of corporate sponsors and supporters will join us for the closing ceremonies, and again will be meeting many of the athletes, who by that time will have medalled.
:
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
[English]
Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear with you again. It is of enormous importance to Canada's athletes to know that the Government of Canada and you, the elected politicians, continue to care about how they perform. Allow me to acknowledge the critical role the Government of Canada plays in high-performance sport in Canada. As we heard earlier from Marcel Aubut, the Government of Canada is the single largest contributor to excellence in sport in Canada, and it is the primary reason why Canada's athletes and coaches have enjoyed the successes they have to this point on the world stage.
I've circulated a detailed performance update for you on the Sochi Olympic and Paralympic Games for your review. I'll focus my remarks on three primary components: first, how Canada stands heading into Sochi; second, Canada's performance objectives for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi; and third, the level of financial investment and investment strategy that we've adopted throughout the last four years.
Let's look at how Canada stands heading into Sochi. As we just heard Karen say in terms of the Paralympic team's preparation, and as we heard as well from the Canadian Olympic Committee's statement, we are in an excellent position heading into the games.
Our performances at the 2013 world championships are the best indicator we have as a nation in terms of how we will perform in Sochi. In 2013 Canada's athletes and coaches won 29 medals in Olympic events. This placed Canada in a tie for second place on the overall nation ranking list. There's a tight race amongst the top five nations, as we heard earlier. Finishing second, third, and fourth on the overall medal ranking can be decided by a single medal.
On the Paralympic front, as Karen just mentioned, Canada finished fourth overall based on gold medal ranking in the 2013 world championships. We were only one medal away from second place. We know it's an extremely tight race in terms of the gold medal race.
Importantly, when you look at the detailed material I've circulated, you can see that we showed significant depth in our silver and bronze medal finishes in the 2013 Paralympic world championships. We're now very focused on working with those national sport organizations to convert those silver and bronze medal performances to gold.
The margin between second, third, and fourth is so tight. As Karen mentioned, the goal of finishing top three in gold medal count is still well within our reach.
Moving on to Canada's performance objectives for 2014, we've been talking about that all morning. In the Olympic Games, our goal is to improve on our medal count from Vancouver. We won 26 medals in Vancouver and finished third overall in total medal count—the third-ranked nation based on the number of medals won in the Olympic Games. Our goal is to contend for number one in Olympic medal count, so to do better than we did in Vancouver. In the Paralympic Games, we want to finish top three based on our gold medal count. Again, both of those objectives are very obtainable.
We want to be the first host nation to have won more medals in the next set of games—ever. No other nation has won more medals in the subsequent set of games of their hosting experience.
The final area I would like to address is the level of financial support that has been provided for Canada's Winter Olympic and Paralympic sports heading into Sochi.
An additional $10 million has been provided for the four years heading into Sochi compared with the level of investment heading into Vancouver. That's remarkable when you think that we were the host nation in Vancouver: $10 million over the last four years into Sochi.
The lion's share of that investment comes from the Government of Canada. This is testament to the tremendous commitment that you, our elected politicians, and our government have made in high-performance sport. Of course that includes our private sector partners. We are always out there, together with our partners, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and the Canadian Olympic Committee, trying to leverage additional resource investment from the private sector.
Own the Podium's investment strategy is very deliberate and focused. Our goal is to ensure that every podium-potential athlete and team has access to three key ingredients.
The first is access to the world's best coaches and technical leaders. We know that without the best coaches, our athletes have a slim possibility of reaching the podium.
Secondly, we want to make sure they have access to a great daily training and competition environment. Those are the basics.
Finally, quality sport science and sport medicine support is the last critical ingredient. Research and innovation is a key element in sport science support. Research and innovation can be the 1% factor that brings an athlete from being fourth to being on the podium.
In the final year of preparation for Sochi we have focused on ensuring that all athletes are fully prepared and have had the opportunity to fully familiarize themselves with Sochi. We know Sochi will be a very challenging environment, and it's those athletes who are the most resilient and adaptable who will find their way onto the podium.
Last but not least, keeping athletes healthy and injury free is a key area of focus with 80 days to go before the Olympic Games and 108 days to go before the Paralympic Games.
Winning medals in sport continues to be important to Canada. We continue to develop a culture of winning and focus on excellence in Canadian sport, maintaining the momentum we generated in Vancouver and maintained in London. A whole new generation of heroes will emerge from Sochi. With each medallist crowned, we need to ensure that these heroes go back to their communities, your communities, and reinforce the importance of sport and physical activity, healthy living, and being active for life.
Canada's children need Olympic heroes. They need positive role models whom they can aspire to emulate. Success in high performance sport, we know, strengthens and builds Canadian communities. We have seen our athletes and coaches and we know they are our future leaders. We know they will play a critical role in developing civic pride and instilling a belief that we can win and that it is okay to win.
Thank you once again on behalf of all of Canada's athletes and coaches for the tremendous support you have provided in Own the Podium's quest to help more athletes win more medals in Sochi. Knowing that you care, believe in, and support the athletes in their pursuit means so much to them and to all the sport leaders who are trying so hard to help Canada's athletes. Knowing that they have an entire government and a country behind them will truly make a difference as they head into Sochi.
[Translation]
Thank you very much.
:
That's a big question, but a very good one, because it touches on a couple of items.
The two international organizations that govern us, the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, and the IPC, the International Paralympic Committee, have had an open discussion about this, particularly under the banner of what I would call “inclusion”. For many, many years the model of “same as same as” would mean the games would be imbedded or integrated, so they would be at the same time, with the same framing all in. I would say we've had an avid discussion over the years, and we've probably evolved to a point now where—given the specificity of each of the sports in their own right, the number of events, and the fact that each event, including the number of athletes involved, is very large—even at an operational level it would be very difficult to do. You would have to cut down on sports, on athletes, on the games themselves, and on opportunities, so in fact the games would become much smaller with less opportunity to compete.
Particularly for the Paralympics in their own right, I'm going to say that the sport, the movement, and the very strong decision to promote Paralympic sport in its own right, with its own set of games, have many other benefits. Top of the list would be the number of athletes and countries that can participate in the games, and also present athletes in their own right. We like to say our games are no different from the Olympics, certainly in terms of the athletic prowess and the training and the degree of commitment our athletes have and certainly in terms of that platform of exposure to have that opportunity with the Paralympics.
The only other point I would make would be on the broadcasts, and I alluded to that a little bit earlier. There's a lot of activity around the Olympics, and then there's far less during the Paralympics, and that's what I referred to earlier. We decided that wasn't acceptable. You made a comment about the London debrief, and in fact Channel 4 in London was a groundbreaker in the amount of coverage it provided.
If there was one lesson we learned, aside from all the other lessons from London and Vancouver that we will take into Sochi, it was that we're not going to have what happened to us in the previous games ever happen again, where the exposure was maybe a highlights package at the end or maybe a half hour. We've bought the rights, we've created a media consortium, and we are going to have unprecedented coverage here in Canada, which I hope will be the banner and set the bar for what is to come, not only for Sochi, but for 2015 and for Rio thereafter.