A Budget for a Golden Year

Hello all,

Yesterday's budget put a golden financial glow on a memorable week for sport in Canada. The budget has demonstrated a level of support previously unseen by our federal government. Kudos to the many sport leaders and citizens - and our exceptional athletes and coaches - who collaborated in bringing these valuable sport proposals to government and for demonstrating what sport can do when we work together.

In sum, $31m have been allocated annually and on an on-going basis to a range of sport and physical activity priorities:

- $5m to renew the La Releve initiative at Sport Canada that was slated to sunset on March 31st of this year

- $3m dedicated to ParticipACTION to promote healthy lifestyles through physical activity and fitness

- $1m towards Special Olympics Canada in support of sport for people with an intellectual disability

- $17m for programs that support the training and competition of winter and summer elite athletes (as in, the $11m towards Own the Podium winter and $6m to Team Sport initiatives)

- $5m to the Canadian Paralympic Committee to build off the coming Games in Vancouver in the years ahead

In turn, Minister Lunn will announce details on how this effort will also reach out to and target private sector investments and partnerships, building on the success of Own the Podium.

There are also indications in the budget that:

- funds still exist in the Recreation Infrastructure Canada program, now entering its second year

- the disbursement quota for charities, foundations, and RCAAAs has been eliminated

- the research granting councils (i.e. SSHRC, CIHR, NSERC etc) have seen modest additional funds , totalling $32m

- $45m towards making facilities more accessible to people with a disability

- Rick Hansen's Foundation also has $9m earmarked for the coming two years

- and some top ups to a number of youth programs are in place (internships for youth employment and skills training - i.e. coaching - for youth at risk)


All the best, and congratulations Canada.

Ian

A New Way Forward for Sport in Alberta

Good afternoon SMG,

I'm posting from Calgary today as we launch the conversations about a New Way Forward for Sport in Alberta - see www.sportalberta.ca.

Will be at Canada Olympic Park with the Calgary Sport Council for a discussion over lunch about municipal policy and election strategies. Then off to Lethbridge where around 30 people are coming out tonight to talk about future directions, what's needed to get there, and what sport can do for Alberta.

More to follow later today.

Ian

Innovations in Sport from the past Decade - Part II

Good afternoon Sport Matters,

Happy New Year and I hope that 2010 has started off well for you and yours.

On to part two of my innovations in Sport from the past decade, with the focus being on VANOC, The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. It was established on September 30, 2003. The Committee’s mandate is to support and promote the development of sport in Canada by planning, organizing, financing and staging the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

VANOC

How many other games organizing committees survive intact from start to finish? Simply put, it never happens, at least not until John Furlong came along and built a team and an organization to contest the notion that Games organizers are hired to be fired. Many highs and many lows later, the Games are on track, Vancouver-Whistler are transformed, and VANOC can make a credible claim to stimulating some big changes in how host organizers think about legacies now, partnerships, and execution.

All for now,

Ian

Innovations in Sport from the past Decade - Part I

Good afternoon Sport Matter,

As 2009 is coming to an end, it has given me the opportunity to think about the last ten years. Having completed my field hockey career at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, this year marks a decade of growing slower, rounder and, arguably, wiser.

It also provides an occasion to reflect on the past and, in this case, to consider some innovations of recent years that will continue to influence the coming decade. Here is the first of many conversation starters for your next planning meeting at the pub.

Professional Coaching

It’s hard to call this an innovation because it has always been thus – nothing makes a bigger difference in sport than an exceptional coach. So much has changed in that part of the sport system in the past 10 years – a new organization with a full service offering, many new employment opportunities, integrated support teams at the national level, and a sustained repatriation of Canadian talent who we had lost to other nations. Yes, there is still more to do to support them but the impact of our coaches on our national system is felt more today than in 2000 – no question about it.

Check back next week for thoughts on another innovation in sport!

Have a safe and happy holidays,

Ian

Parliamentary finance committee takes an interest in sport proposals

Hi Sport Matters,

We've been at this for some time now and it's fair to say it gets better every year. Better understanding by Parliamentarians on the Standing Committee on Finance about why sport matters. Better questions from all parties. And better appreciation for how they can contribute and support Canadian excellence and participation in sport. Actually pretty cool to see the MPs working away at the issues, something you can lose sight of if you just read the papers.

A few highlights:

- We framed our remarks around being in the home city of the coming 2010 Games, building on Therese Brisson's testimony last week from the COC, and with thanks to the Committee for their support of previous budget proposals over the past 2 budgets (i.e. Road to Excellence and the Sport/Rec Infrastructure measures now generating $3b+ in capital investment)

- Then we zeroed in on the 3 proposals from our brief to help Canadian sport to bridge the gap in the coming year(s):

1) Focus on $22m stimulus measures to the national sport programs that are sunseting (OTP, athlete/coach, team, corporate etc.),

2) Modernize the Income Tax Act and make amateur community sport charitable to increase donations,

3) Make the Children's Fitness Tax Credit fully refundable to help low income Canadians register in sport programs.

- Many many nodding heads about the need to get behind the $22m stimulus

- Really supportive group from BC sport in the room - big thanks to Marilyn Payne (2010LegaciesNow), Steven Hills (CSC Pacific), Joe Hitchcock (BC Athlete Voice), and Gail Donohue (KidSport Canada)

- Way better coffee at the Vancouver Hyatt then the stuff they serve on Parliament Hill

- Learned a lot about Fraser River sediment patterns, capital gains status for landlords, daycare/early learning/child poverty/women's equality, and about RCMP budgets in Tahsis, BC - democracy at work here in Vancouver with diverse presentation to the Committee

- Nice job by chairman James Rajotte today - on time and well balanced discussion.

Questions followed on sport, more than ever, about like this:

- John McCallum (Liberal) - Clarifying question on the $22m: what's the potential impact? Then supportive comments agreeing with our recommendation; and then, clarifying statement on the benefits of REFUNDABLE tax credits during the economic downturn - easy to agree with his perspective as an economist.

- Jean-Yves Laforest (Bloc) - How will the charitable status proposal make sport more inclusive? This gave me a chance to talk about how the UK made this change just a few years ago for precisely this purpose.

- Darryl Kramp (Cons) - Line of the day as he agreed with our proposals - "Keep your kids in sport and out of the courts." Big champion of why sport matters at all levels.

- Peter Julian (NDP) - Not really a question, just support for the $22m and the CFTC proposals. Wants to learn more.

- Massimo Pacetti (Liberal) - Support, as always, for our athletes and sport. Then a personal story about hockey and soccer and his kids. What are we doing to make it inclusive and not exclusive? What about our facilities? So I took the chance to talk about Canadian Sport for Life and about the remaining Sport and Rec infrastructure gap ($3b now invested against a $15b deficit.) Bit of back and forth. Good stuff.

We'll have the transcipt soon enough and will circulate to the Group.

All for now.

Ian

SMG: Our goals for a better way

Good afternoon all,

With the 2010 and Beyond panel now getting itself organized, the Standing Committee on Finance brief due on August 15th, and with our SMG meeting slated for September 8th (full day in Ottawa at the RA Centre, RSVP to info@sportmatters.ca), we have some time to recalibrate our goals for a better way for sport and physical activity in the coming era.

My sense is that it would be helpful if we could articulate a set of goals - our sector's aspirations - from which we could then identify what's required to achieve them. Some of this is now being pulled together from the first BHD (big honkin document) and the process to create our next SMG policy framework (BHD version 2). Still, it's useful for us to fine tune and zero-in on what matters most.

So please take a stab at answering the question: what can we do better? Send them to us (info@sportmatters.ca) and we'll roll them up prior to our meeting on September 8th. Keep in mind that we had identified the following at our May 1st meeting about our sector strategy:
better alliances and mergers
better strategic plans and relationships between NSO-PSO-Club (as in the example of MOUs and Service Agreements like in Athletics and Hockey)
better efficiencies through sharing "back of house" services, like finance, hr, etc
better strategic relationships through co-location strategies, as in the efforts in Ottawa, Winnipeg etc to house sport and physical activity organizations together
better efforts to wind down initiatives and then to innovate around future goals

Let's all take a longer and more comprehensive look at what we can do better - send in your ideas, ok?

One last thing - we sent along an opinion piece to a few newspapers and the Ottawa Citizen ran with it this Saturday (link below) - Send it along to others, if you wish.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Vancouver+2010+just+beginning/1827357/story.html


All for now,
Ian

SMG: On an active policy agenda this summer

Good afternoon all,

So much for a reduced pace this summer. Leaders in the sector are as busy as always, especially with the Canada Games coming soon to PEI and Vancouver 2010 just around the corner.

The public policy front at the federal level is also very active with at least these 4 important activities taking shape.

1. Standing Committee on Finance

We have another opportunity to work together in framing our federal budget submissions to the Standing Committee on Finance. This Committee of Parliament hears from Canadians and makes recommendations to the Minister of Finance as an on-going part of the federal budget process. This year, the Committee plans EXTENSIVE cross-Canada consultations. If you wish to present to the Committee in your city, please review the attached letter, submit your request BEFORE July 31st, and then connect with us so that we can coordinate our messages and themes.

2. Minister's leadership towards a better way

It seems that things have been active within the Minister's office on his idea and interest in developing a better way for sport leadership and governance in Canada. We've been encouraging him to initiate a process that helps us to work together and to benefit from the kinds of collaborative successes (think Own the Podium, LTAD, joint infrastructure projects etc.) which have provided the most momentum over the past few years. We'll see where this goes but we may well need to boot-up quickly in response to leadership from Minister Lunn.

We are also about one-month out from the annual meeting of federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers. We anticipate that they will focus on tackling the physical inactivity crisis, not just setting targets and measuring our lack of progress. There may also be some early reflections on the renewal process for the Canadian Sport Policy which sunsets in 2012.

3. Sport Matters meeting on September 8th - full day at the RA Centre in Ottawa. RSVP to Liz McDonald at: info@sportmatters.ca or 613.231.7472, x 246.

With the federal budget and a better way in mind, plus an opportunity to meet with Sport Canada's new Director General, Martin Boileau, we've made plans for a full day Sport Matters meeting on September 8th. We should also prepare for a fall election given what the opposition parties are communicating.

To round out the agenda, we'll want to pick up on our May 1st meeting when we set out a 5 point agenda for our own better way initiative:
- shared service strategies (to share back of house operational functions)
- integration strategies (like MOU agreements as Athletics Canada is developing)
- co-location / ownership opportunities through bricks and mortar developments
- alliances (that build and deliver value, not new organizations)
- mergers through governance reforms (and how we can actually streamline our system through strategic mergers and even acquisitions)
- winding down (this is often the unspoken part of the equation - how can we achieve this with integrity and value this contribution to a better way!)

4. Working Together Initiative

Kudos to the group of leaders who are continuing to make progress with 9 federal departments across the government of Canada on what sport and physical activity can do to achieve a range of policy objectives. At the end of the month there's a meeting of Assistant Deputy Ministers from departments of Health, Heritage, Indian Affairs, Northern Development, Human Resources, Social Development, and Citizenship, plus our sport and physical activity colleagues. This will set the scene for Phase 2 of the Working Together Initiative and a couple more years of development work on both what to do, how to do it together, and how to most effectively flow resources.

That's it for now but I think we can all expect some increased engagement and communication in the coming days.

Oh, one last thing - I drafted this think piece (previous blog) for Coaches Plan. Have a look if you have some time.

Cheers,

Ian