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Prime Minister Mark Carney says Ottawa is planning to revamp its funding for Canadian athletes and will tackle the issue “very deliberately” over the next six months — news that comes just before a federal commission on the future of Canadian sport releases its final report.
Carney shared the information to a group of Canadian athletes in Holmenkollen, just north of Oslo, Norway. The athletes are competing in the International Ski Federation Nordic World Cup.
“So we may come to organizers and others to see how to get it right,” Carney told the athletes. “Because it’s at your level, but it also needs to be a very broad grassroots level. Playground-to-podium type. We’ll do it right.”
CBC News has reached out to the office of Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden for comment.
The prime minister’s comments come just before the Future of Sport in Canada Commission releases its final report. The commission was launched in 2023 to probe systemic abuse and human rights violations in Canadian sports.
After more than a year of review, the Future of Sport in Canada Commission is warning sport has ‘a culture of silence that protects perpetrators.’ Power & Politics asks report commissioner Lise Maisonneuve about her findings.
A preliminary report from the commission, released last August, said Canada’s National Sport Organizations (NSOs) are in dire need of extra funding and operate with diminishing funds that have not kept pace with inflation or increasing expectations.
The report also said that “funding and attention have too often been concentrated on elite, high-performance athletes, with insufficient focus on the burgeoning needs of youth and local communities.”
To address the issue, the commission recommended that the federal government “urgently” increase core funding to NSOs and national Para sport organizations, consolidate sources of federal funding, develop a long-term funding strategy and improve the application process for receiving federal cash.
The interim report also said the Canadian sports system is rife with abuse and fosters a culture that discourages athletes from speaking out.
It found that the federal government’s current emphasis on “high performance and medal achievements” does not align with the Canadian sport community’s desire for a system that values success but also embodies respect and diversity while promoting health and well-being.
The final report is to be released on March 24.
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