No more crowdfunding and increased infrastructure: NSOs cautiously plan for federal funding boost
When Canada’s women’s rugby team snagged silver at the World Cup last year, it was deemed a success.
The squad, after all, had raised over $1 million to fund its training and competition journey, and those dollars immediately paid off in the form of hardware.
But reflecting a few months later, star scrum-half Olivia Apps stopped short of calling it a win.
“I honestly don’t think it did work,” Apps said. “I think we got really close and we did the best that we could with the situation we had. This team deserved to have all the opportunities to win that medal. And I’m not sure if we had every opportunity we could have had.”
Apps, the 27-year-old from Lindsay, Ont., added that some extra financial help at the margins could have been the ultimate difference between silver and gold.
“When you look at the resources that other teams’ programs have and you compared to where we are, it just does come down to the money at the end of the day. And I think there’s those little margins that I honestly think would have made a difference,” she said.
Apps — and the rest of the Canadian sport system — may have seen that financial gap close slightly when the federal government announced more than $750 million would be injected during the spring economic update in April.
Canada’s Secretary of State (Sport) joined CBC Sports’ Donnovan Bennett to discuss the Spring Economic Update 2026 which has proposed to provide $755 million over five years, starting in 2026-27, and $118 million ongoing, to Canadian Heritage to support Canada’s sport system.
For Rugby Canada CEO Nathan Bombrys, however, that announcement — while promising — did not relieve any pressure he feels regarding his national sport organization’s funding shortfall.
“None. At the moment, none,” Bombrys said. “Because we don’t know where it’s going to get applied and if it’s going to be applied in a way that relieves the pressure. It’s a great question because running an NSO, there’s a lot of pressure involved at the moment when you’ve got high expectations, quality athletes, quality teams who are hungry for that support and want to do their sport. And you’ve got a public that wants to see success and wants to see support into the game across the country and limited resources to do it.”
A real-life example of the new funding not making an immediate impact played out Tuesday when Cycling Canada announced it was pulling its women’s team pursuit group from the upcoming world championships, citing money among its reasoning. CBC Sports reported Wednesday the players are appealing.
Next year, the men’s rugby team is due to compete at its World Cup in Australia — and, as of now, it too is planning a crowd-funding campaign.
“Currently, we don’t have an alternative. That’s what we’re doing,” Bombrys said.
Apps said she hopes crowdfunding is a thing of the past by the time 2029 rolls around with the next women’s rugby World Cup — that a lack of money is no longer part of her team’s identity.
“I think as you see women’s sport really taking off … there is money somewhere. So like, is it? And me as an athlete, that’s the question I asked myself. So I would hopefully not three years from now need to be crowdfunding for another World Cup. I think I would be disappointed, really disappointed, if that was where we were at three years from now,” Apps said.
Divvying up the pie
That’s where the federal funding comes in.
Of that $750 million, $660 is ticketed toward NSOs over the next five years, with another $45 million toward athletes directly and $50 million toward hosting.
In the weeks after the announcement, it remains unclear exactly how the pie will be sliced — though it won’t be as simple as $660 million divided by five years divided by 72 NSOs. Broadly, there are incentives for NSOs to enforce safe sport, make their own businesses more efficient and increase grassroots participation.
“Ultimately, it’s very clear that there is a tranche and a significant tranche of funding for NSOs, but there’s going to be expectation and there should be,” said Canada Basketball CEO Mike Bartlett, who co-chairs the summer sport caucus that oversees government advocacy efforts along with the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Bartlett projected that it could take up to six months for the funding to arrive in NSO bank accounts.
Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) CEO, David Shoemaker, reacts to the Spring Economic Update 2026 which has proposed to provide $755 million over five years, starting in 2026-27, and $118 million ongoing, to Canadian Heritage to support Canada’s sport system.
Then again, Canada Soccer received $9.8 million toward a national training centre just days after the announcement. That injection came from a separate pool called the Build Communities Strong Fund, which has $250 million earmarked toward sport infrastructure.
Bartlett said it’s an area Canada Basketball could explore.
“Basketball doesn’t actually have an infrastructure problem, but it has an infrastructure access problem. Thousands and thousands and thousands of basketball courts sit dormant at 3:30 p.m. because they’re in schools. I would argue we could solve that with help from government,” Bartlett said.
Bombrys, meanwhile, envisions Rugby Canada using the piece of funding dedicated to hosting. Thirty-one major international rugby events are already slate to come to Canada between 2026 and 2029, which “conservatively” add $220 million to the economy, he said.
“We’re looking at how can government or other partners help us unlock that benefit. We need a bit of help. When we do that, we’re a not-for-profit registered charity Canadian national sports organization really trying to grow our sport and provide opportunities for players across the country to enjoy the sport and all the health and lifestyle benefits that come with it,” he said.
“That little bit of support unlocks huge benefit for Canadians and for Canadian communities.”
Apps said she’s received no guidance for how the $45 million toward athletes will be divided.
However, it doesn’t take long to envision how beneficial it would be.
“We’re able to just be more professional and be able to get the mental health support we need, the nutrition support we need, mental performance and then be able to train with our team more consistently, which I think will make a big difference. And the travel and the quality of our camps and everything can just increase,” Apps said.
“And I feel like those are like the little 1 per cent that I think will really make a difference.”
The 2025 team will never have the chance to know whether a little bit of extra help really would have pushed it past England in the gold-medal game.
Perhaps, in three year’s time, after the federal funding has kicked in, its toolkit will finally be full.
“It’s time. Like, it’s time for women’s sport not needing to crowdfund anymore,” Apps said. “And this team has seen that year after year after year. And I hope that was the end, but I’m cautiously optimistic.”
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