Question Period Note: Sport Reform

The Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec announces new measures to improve accountability and foster sustainable culture change in sport.

• The Government of Canada is committed to building a sport system that is safe and inclusive.
• That is why we are taking additional and concrete actions to:
o improve the governance and increase the accountability of sport organizations;
o enhance safe sport practices; and,
o prioritize the voices of athletes in the sport system.
• The newly announced measures will continue to build the foundation of a culture change in sport. It will help us move towards a more accountable and safer sport system where the well-being of sport participants is top of mind.

Sport Reform towards a Safe and Accountable Sport System
• To drive change and ensure that athletes, coaches and other participants are holistically supported and have access to safe, healthy and inclusive sport experiences, Minister St-Onge announced the following actions on May 11, 2023:
Governance
• All National Sport Organizations (NSOs) will be required to adopt the Canadian Sport Governance Code and make the corresponding changes to their governance structures by April 2025.
• These changes include:
o At least 40 percent of Board members will need to be independent, and no staff member of the organization can sit on the board.
o To favor equity, diversity, and perspective, no more than 60 percent of Board members can be of the same gender and sport organizations should develop a policy for diversity at the Board level.
o Athlete representation on Boards will be mandatory.
o All new Board members will need to receive a proper orientation as to their roles and responsibilities as directors which includes instruction on good governance practices and governance policies.
o Each Board member shall be subject to a term limit (nine years maximum, comprised of multiple terms).
o NSOs' annual financial statements in their entirety will need to be audited and posted on the organization's website within six months of year end.
o NSOs' minutes of Board meetings will need to be published on their website.
o NSOs will be required to publish the terms of reference for all their committees.
o NSOs will be required to publish online an annual report on diversity at the Board level. The report should include approaches and initiatives taken to attract directors with the required skills and diversity (including with respect to gender representation), whether it considers its initiatives successful and any additional steps the Board will be making towards this objective.
Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs)
• AthletesCAN's revised Athlete Agreement makes it clear that athletes' rights, protections, or responsibilities under the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport (UCCMS), including the right to submit a complaint to the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC), cannot be restricted. The language in the Athlete Agreement will be a requirement for all NSOs to adopt and integrate.
• Sport Canada, through funding agreements with NSOs, will prohibit any NSO contracts, policies, procedures, or actions from restricting participants' rights under the UCCMS, including submitting complaints to the OSIC.
Athletes at the heart of the decision-making structures
• Any NSO that does not have an athlete representative on its Board will be required to appoint at least one athlete representative to the position of Board observer. Each NSO must develop a process whereby the athlete representative is determined with significant input from that sport's athletes. Sport Canada will dedicate up to $300,000 in funding to AthletesCAN to help better engage its membership and structure its voice to have impact on the sport system and to support governance training, so athletes are better prepared to take on roles on Boards of Directors.
• The Sport Canada Athlete Advisory Committee has been put in place to increase the representation of athletes in the sport system and to allow Sport Canada to obtain advice and guidance that reflect the realities of athletes in Canada.
• Sport Canada will be offering the opportunity for two national team athletes per year to participate in a paid internship at Sport Canada. This is an opportunity to support athletes in their professional development.
Maltreatment, abuse and discrimination education and prevention
• Sport Canada will work with partners in the sport system and dedicate up to $1 million in funding to develop robust, consistent and system-wide tools and resources regarding abuse, discrimination and maltreatment. These tools and resources will ensure that sport participants understand and are aware of their individual responsibilities and rights in creating a safe sport system for everyone.
Standards and certifications for coaches
• Funding of up to $250,000 will be provided to the Coaching Association of Canada to:
o Launch a pilot project to have all development and national team coaches attending national and international events certified and screened appropriately, including comprehensive background checks and training on the UCCMS.
o Develop and promote a training module for international coaches to help them understand Canadian values, norms, and acceptable behaviours.
Public registry of sanctions
• The Minister highlighted that Abuse-Free Sport program is working on establishing a public registry of individuals who have been sanctioned under the UCCMS and whose eligibility to participate in sport has in some way been restricted.
• The registry will apply to sport organizations that are program signatories with Abuse-Free Sport, including the services of the OSIC. To access federal funding, all NSOs had to sign with Abuse-Free Sport by April 1, 2023.
• The name of the sanctioned person and the cause of the sanction will be public for the time of the sanction. After that, the sanction will still be visible to organizations, but not publicly available.
Compliance and accountability
• Budget 2023 proposes to provide $13.8 million over three years, starting in 2022–23, to the Department of Canadian Heritage to enhance accountability and support efforts to build a safe and accountable sport system through the establishment of new expectations, and enhanced monitoring and compliance with contribution agreements.
• This will allow for the development of better situational awareness to be able to detect compliance issues early, address issues in a timely manner and ensure that lessons learned are funneled into prevention efforts.
• Sport Canada will have a Compliance Unit with new expertise and dedicated resources.

 
• This Compliance Unit will be built with the help of safe sport work with experts and scholars that will define the right markers and indicators to track and monitor NSO performance in various areas, such as governance (including transparency), safe sport, athlete representation, etc. The performance of NSOs in these areas will be tracked through the development of action plans with NSOs and the objectives will be tied to part of their funding. Failure to improve will lead to the escalation of repercussions, such as financial consequences for NSOs.
• These plans will need to be in place by April 2024 for organizations to access Sport Canada funding.
Board of Directors nomination process for the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC)
• The Government of Canada will review the current merit-based process and implement greater transparency for nominating and appointing members to the SDRCC’s Board of Directors. This will include issuing the call for nominations from the Government of Canada rather than the current process where the call for nominations is issued by the SDRCC.
Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner
• As of April 1, 2023, all NSOs must be a Program Signatory to the Abuse-Free Sport program, including the services of the OSIC, to receive funding from Sport Canada.

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