Question Period Note: Preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games

Despite surges in the spread of COVID and talks of the 2020 Games being cancelled, the Tokyo Games Organizing Committee as well as Japanese government authorities continue to plan and adjust their countermeasures to provide a safe and healthy environment for all Games participants. The government of Canada continues to work with Canadian sport partners to support their Games preparations.

• The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees and the National Sport Organizations, along with the Government of Canada, are closely monitoring the status of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the Tokyo 2020 Games. The priority remains the health and safety of athletes and coaches.
• In collaboration with these same partners, the Government of Canada is supporting return to sport efforts across the country.
• We remain committed to investing in the current and next generation of Canadian athletes so that they may perform at their best.

• On March 22, 2020, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) made the decision not to send Canadian teams to the Tokyo Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Canada was a leader in calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) to postpone the Games for one year to protect not only the health and safety of athletes but also the world community.
• The decision to host the Games or whether to host them in a modified form, rests with the Tokyo Organizing Committee (TOCOG), the IOC and the IPC. During the pandemic, Canada put in place a Sport Medicine Advisory Committee made up of the COC, the CPC, Own the Podium and the Government of Canada to provide latest updates on vaccinations, domestic and international travel regulations and testing opportunities.
• Guided by the principles of health and safety for all team members, the COC and the CPC aim to create an environment that supports athlete and coach performance. As such, they are both planning on having strict COVID 19 protocols in place to prevent the spread of the virus within the Canadian Teams and ultimately, protect our Canadian athlete performance. Contact with athletes will be very limited prior to and during the Games. Despite all the counter measures being implemented, challenges remain. Travel restrictions impact training and competition plans affecting potential qualification for the Games and classification opportunities for para-athletes. Also, the timing of access to vaccinations is concerning particularly for those vulnerable para-athletes who have immune deficiencies.
• Potential areas where the COC and the CPC have sought the assistance from the Government of Canada are travel restrictions and quarantine requirements upon re-entry to Canada, vaccination protocols and support in the event of an emergency repatriation to Canada due to the pandemic.
• Since the postponement of the Games was announced, the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee has constantly adjusted its pre-Games planning to deliver the Games in 2021 safely for all groups such as athletes and officials, volunteers and workforce, media, spectators and dignitaries.
• Most recently, the Organizing Committee released a series of Playbooks detailing measures that will be implemented to safeguard the health of all participants. The COC and the CPC evaluated how these would be implemented within their own operations and are constantly adjusting their own planning processes.
• These Playbooks include such measures as health monitoring for 14 days prior to travelling to Japan, completing an activity plan for the stay in Japan, health reporting in a smartphone application for contact tracing, taking a COVID-19 test within 72 hours prior to departure to Japan and presenting a certificate demonstrating the negative result upon arrival in Japan in conjunction with a possible subsequent testing at that time, screening every four days once in the Athlete’s Village and limiting the duration of stay in the Village, supporting athletes by clapping and not singing or chanting, and all this while respecting the basic sanitary principles of wearing a mask, ensuring physical distancing, washing hands and using a hand sanitizer.
• Health officials in Japan have again recently expressed concerns that the rescheduled Games could pose a greater health risk to the public. Worries have been raised that the global health crisis will not have subsided to a suitable level by the Games, particularly with countries at varying stages of managing their national responses and with the resurgence of the coronavirus notably the variants appearing to be more infectious. Doubts over whether Tokyo would be able to host the Summer Games, already an unpopular idea with the public, have thus resurfaced in recent weeks and Japanese health officials have requested the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee to present concrete measures on how it proposes to stop the spread of the virus during the Games. Japan has twice declared a state of emergency that covered most of the country in the past year.
• On April 9, 2021, with Japan in its fourth wave of the infection, the coronavirus alert level was raised in Tokyo and a few surrounding areas to allow tougher measures to curb the rapid spread. Vaccinations in Japan began in February but the national vaccination drive has lagged. A recent poll conducted in Japan found that 70% of those surveyed think the Tokyo Games should either be postponed again or cancelled because of rising coronavirus cases. The Tokyo 2020 organizers are still struggling with public support for the Games.
• On April 15, 2021, a day following the 100 day countdown to the Opening Ceremonies of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, talks s spread on social media that the Games were cancelled after some Japanese political figures indicated cancelling the Games remained an option if the spread of the coronavirus didn’t subside. The Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee responded with a statement saying all those involved in preparing for the Games remained fully focused on hosting them in the summer. The Prime Minister of Japan, Toshihide Suga, also said in a statement there was "no change to the government position to do everything to achieve safe and secure Games".
• The way these Games will be held will be very different from past ones. The COC has indicated it feels confident all the measures are in place to ensure safe and secure Games for athletes and coaches amidst the coronavirus stating learnings from many sporting events being held successfully during the pandemic with robust health measures are being implemented.
• Sport Canada continues to prepare Canadian athletes for the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games and beyond by working to advance Canada’s high performance sport system through the following programs and initiatives:
o Athlete Assistance Program (AAP)
o Enhanced Excellence funding
o Next Generation Initiative
o Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network (COPSIN)
• The Government of Canada provided additional COVID-19 relief funding to the Canadian sport system, including $34.2 million in additional support under the Sport Support Program (SSP) to national sport organizations, multisport service organizations and the Canadian Sport Centres and $5 million in additional support to AAP.
• The process to provide support to sport organizations to alleviate the financial burden to athletes and support personnel for the initial isolation period of three days while a molecular test is administered upon return to Canada is currently being detailed.

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