The federal government has pledged more than $750 million toward sport in Canada in the wake of a commission that found a “widespread funding crisis” in a broken and often unsafe sport system.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who announced the money as part of the federal government’s spring economic update on Tuesday, described it as “the most significant investment in our sport system in 20 years.”
“A Canada for all must also be a Canada where sport is accessible for everyone,” Champagne said.
Much of the sports funding is earmarked to go directly to national sport organizations, which haven’t seen an increase to core funding in more than two decades.
That includes $660 million over five years, including $110 million ongoing, with the money targeted at growing participation among children and youth, particularly in underrepresented communities, and improving sporting organizations’ safe sport systems.
It’s money that the Canadian Olympic Committee, Canadian Paralympic Committee, national sport organizations and athletes have spent years calling for, arguing that it impacts Canada’s performance on the world stage and that underfunding has made the system less safe.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne tabled the Liberal government’s spring economic update, delivering a speech to the House of Commons. Champagne said, in French: ‘This spring economic update reflects the progress that we’ve made and the important work that remains to be done.’
Both the Canadian Olympic Committee and CPC applauded the news on Tuesday.
“Canadian athletes feel heard,” Canadian Olympic Committee CEO David Shoemaker said in an interview with CBC Sports. “It’s a generational investment in Canadian sport that will impact athletes at the high-performance level and in communities across the country. It’s very, very welcome news.”
The funding also comes with a warning that national sport organizations are expected to do things differently and find new streams of revenue.
“We want national sport organizations to work with private sector partners who share the goal of getting more Canadians involved in sport,” the government’s economic update says. “And we expect national sport organizations to make changes to their programming to invest in sport at all levels.”
More funding needed for safer system, report says
That fits with the theme of the Future of Sport in Canada Commission’s final report, which was released last month with nearly 100 calls to action. The commission’s work spanned two years and was prompted by calls for a public inquiry into abuse and maltreatment in sport, after many athletes told personal and traumatic stories about what they’d experienced while competing.
Its final document calls for sweeping change in Canadian sport, from the way sport is organized, structured and governed, all the way down to how it’s funded.
“A clear picture of a widespread funding crisis throughout the Canadian sport system clearly emerged during our work,” the commission’s final report says.
“Participants told us that federal funding has not kept pace with inflation, rising operational demands, or expanded governance and safe-sport responsibilities. They described a system where both sport organizations and athletes themselves are strained because the federal framework no longer reflects the true cost of delivering sport in Canada.”
The commission called for an increase in funding for sport organizations, along with a multi-year funding strategy and regular auditing.
“Providing appropriate support to federally funded sport organizations is essential to protect the safety of everyone involved in the sport system,” the report says.
It also called for some national sporting organizations to amalgamate or share resources, such as IT services, with each other, and to look for new forms of revenue such as sponsorships and corporate partnerships.
In the long-term, it envisioned a new Crown corporation that could streamline accountability for sport in Canada and would be responsible for sport funding and safe sport, arguing that anything less than a significant structural change will generate more of the same.
Money to host more events
Tuesday’s announcement also includes $45 million over five years for athletes, including “support for better mental health” and funding toward safe sport measures.
There’s also $50 million over five years specifically to “bring more world-class sporting events to Canada,” which includes money for major sport infrastructure projects.
“Funding will be tied to legacy-building projects that deliver lasting benefits well beyond the events themselves,” the economic update says. “Facilities built or upgraded for major events will continue to serve communities, support grassroots participation, and strengthen local sport systems for years to come.”
Days before the Future of Sport in Canada Commission released its final report in March, Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged to revamp funding for Canadian athletes over the next six months.
Ahead of last year’s federal budget, Canadian sport organizations asked for a $144 million increase to make up for years of stagnant core funding. Shoemaker warned that the system was on the brink of falling apart, and that Canadian athletes were thriving in spite of an underfunded system.
On Tuesday, Shoemaker said the new money should allow national sport organizations to get on proper financial footing, which would relieve athletes of a burden that had often shifted to them.
Ahead of the LA28 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, Shoemaker said the new funding could help an athlete who’s been deciding whether to go into further debt to pursue their dream or to walk away from what they love.
“It allows their national sports organizations to perhaps invest in the training camps and the coaching and the nutrition and all of the other analytics and other innovations and technologies that they might not have had the opportunity to do to keep pace with the competition,” Shoemaker said.
“Even if you just put it in that little narrow context, it really does level the playing field for our national sports that probably felt like they were losing ground in the lead up to LA, and I think it allows them to close ground rather rapidly.”
