A New Game Plan: Sports Funding 101

How would you describe the history of sports funding in Canada? Well, that's a big question. Big questions! That's what we do here. That's what I do. I'm a bit of a curious guy. And right now, I'm curious to figure out, as we talk about saving sport in Canada, as it is increasingly part of our national identity, that means saving sport for high-performance athletes and grassroots kids and weekend warriors. But no matter where you are in the pyramid in sport in Canada, the question historically has been, who's going to pay for it and how? This is Sports Funding 101. Thought experiment. You think of transcendent sporting moments in Canada, what comes to mind? Top of mind for me, I go 96 Atlanta, the other Donovan, Bailey, double gold. Ooh, let's go 2010 Vancouver. Again, let's just assist the kid for the golden goal. Or the most important goal for me, Julie Grosso from the spot just south of Tokyo, bringing the gold up north. But actually, the most transcendent thing that's happened in sport in our country happened right here in Ottawa. not in a pool or on a track, actually in this parliament building We are investing $755 million over the next five years in a plan to strengthen our sports system. Creating new opportunities for all Canadians to participate. Sports funding in Canada goes all the way back to the early 1960s. Baby boomers were still being born. It has been less than constant since, until recently, the federal government infused the system with almost a billion in dollars. Cash rules everything around us. Now, the people who have been following this for a long time say the road to get here has been long and less than linear. How has sports funding worked historically in Canada? Historically, the way sport funding has worked in Canada is that at the national level, the high performance level that are governed by things like Canada Basketball, Hockey Canada and so on, federal government largely invests there. In some cases provincial governments will invest in the provincial and territorial sport bodies. Sometimes that'll trickle down into communities, but often it doesn't. The other nuance with sport funding historically in Canada is that it has largely remained flat for several decades. And so it hasn't kept pace with the changes that we've seen either in population growth, or in the demand for sport, or in the increased cost of delivering sport at any level of participation. In Canada, the funding model really started with amateur sports and physical activity is where it got its roots. And then in the early 2000s, that model really shifted to be around elite sports, getting to the podium at the Olympics. And so you saw some physical activity, but you saw a big shift towards the elite sports. More recently, with Carney coming on board, we started to see a shift again towards even more elite sports. And then just recently, we saw a really big change with the big investment in participation happening on skates. A significant shift over the years. I think the history of sports funding in Canada has been a little bit all over the map. I think there have been times when we have invested in sports in Canada with a real commitment to the grassroots, to getting as many people to participate as possible. Then there have been times in the history of sports funding in Canada, particularly after moments of crisis like the Ben Johnson scandal, when we've been really committed to making sure that we have an ethical sports system. Then there's been kind of the own the podium model where we've decided that what we should really be doing in Canada is to put as many athletes on the podium as possible. And I think where we find ourselves right now is in a little bit of a jumble of all of those. So there are a couple pillars where this funding goes. Host, build, protect, play, perform. Those are the areas of focus. Now, the tagline is playground to podium, but are those two things interconnected or mutually exclusive? Resources are not infinite. Is it binary in terms of choosing whether you fund grassroots development relative to high performance? It need not be. I think in the perfect system, Money that finds its way into the Canadian sports system would support grassroots all the way to the top of the pyramid. That's the classic model, right? If your elite athletes are doing well, then that's a representation of investment at the bottom of the pyramid. But that's easier said than done. I mean, there is always an opportunity cost, I think, in any kind of funding model. Money spent somewhere is money that isn't spent somewhere else. And I think the other thing that makes this complicated in the Canadian system is that the system is relatively fragmented in its delivery. So there's challenges between The jurisdiction of the federal delivery of the sport system versus the provincial versus the local. But that still presents a problem because funding doesn't make its way efficiently through the system as much as we would hope that it would. Adam, what I find intriguing about you is you have grassroots experience as a kid, but high performance experience as an athlete, have traveled and trained. Around the world, as you try to build and reshape our sports system, what is the intended outcome that you have in your mind? The intended outcome of more investment in sport, more of a focus on sport, is joy. It's not Olympic Paralympic gold. It's not another World Cup in Canada. Those are outcomes of a well-funded, well-resourced, successful sport system. But what you really want that finish line to look like for more Canadians is opportunity, experience, fun, friends. Because that's the root of a successful sport system in Canada, is just more Canadians doing sport. More people connected through the power of physical activity. And I think a natural outcome of that will be... More success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships, World Cups, but for far too long I think it's been the only goal. Is investing in sport at the federal level a bipartisan issue? I don't think it's partisan at all. I was at committee recently with members from almost every party in the House of Commons when we were talking about sport, and I'd say that 80% of the time we're being very non-partisan and cooperative and collaborative, and I think that's the way it should be. What we've had in Canada for decades, forever probably, is lots of talent. But that talent has not always been met with opportunity. And what I think the greatest potential outcome of this $755 million investment will be meeting that talent with more opportunity across the country. Not to suggest that we're doing a big talent ID thing where we want to find the next Clara Hughes or the next Mike Woods or the next Steve Nash, that's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is a young person being able to wake up and dream and have those dreams be connected to an opportunity that is tangible, that is walking distance, that is affordable, that is safe. And I think the future of Canadian sport is really bright, not just because of this generational investment, but also the way in which Canadians have I just have... Recognized, appreciated and responded to this investment, which is with ambition, enthusiasm and getting right to work.