Question Period Note: Athlete Assistance Program

The Athlete Assistance Program provides direct financial support to over 1800 Canadian high performance (carded) athletes, across more than 94 sport disciplines. The Government of Canada allocated $5 million in Emergency Support Funding to this grant program.

• The Government of Canada is committed to investing in Canadian high performance athletes so that they may perform at their best.
• The Athlete Assistance Program is a grant program that offsets living, training and education costs so that our athletes can remain in high performance sport.
• Emergency Support Funding of $5 million was allocated directly to amateur athletes to help address impacts caused by the cancellation of national and international training opportunities and competitive events and the postponement of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Athlete Assistance Program (AAP) provides direct financial support to more than 1800 Canadian high performance (carded) athletes, across more than 94 sport disciplines.
• The ongoing budget of the AAP is $33 million.
• The gender breakdown of the AAP athletes is approximately 50/50.
• Over 250 of these athletes are Paralympic athletes. Carded athletes receive funding for living and training expenses and are eligible for tuition support to further their education.
• On May 8, 2020, the Government of Canada committed an additional $5 million in Emergency Support Funding to the AAP to help support athletes affected by the cancellation of national and international training opportunities and competitive events and the postponement of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
• Funds disbursed from this fund respected, as much as possible, the intent of the current AAP Policies and Procedures with some allowed flexibilities to National Sport Organizations (NSOs) in the application of their carding criteria and nominations for the 2020 and 2021 carding cycles.
• All currently eligible sport disciplines (winter/summer/Olympic/Paralympic/non-Olympic/non-Paralympic) were eligible to access the emergency support funds.
• The allocation process included the following types of support:
o Support to eligible athletes who were already qualified for carding but who had to change plans with regards to their commitment to the national team program and who therefore required additional months of carding added due to the postponement of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games;
o Support to eligible athletes who had qualified and been named to an Olympic or Paralympic spot but who were currently uncarded or carded at the developmental level through the provision of an “early Olympic/Paralympic card” or upgrade card until the start of their NSOs’ next carding cycle;
o The distribution of additional cards to NSOs for use in the 2020 and 2021 carding cycles on a case-by-case basis. This addressed individual National Sport Organization issues around athletes who were not nominated due to COVID-19 and in particular, around development and other athletes normally picked up in year one of the quadrennial who would have missed out on carding due to Olympic and Paralympic athletes remaining as the priority for an additional 12 months heading into the 2021 Games;
o Additional supplementary support opportunities that aligned with the AAP Policies and Procedures such as additional access to “Relocation Support” for carded athletes needing to relocate to the national team training location once the initial COVID-19 restrictions were lifted and return to training protocols had been put in place for their particular sport.
• Sport Canada engaged with stakeholders to launch this process and cards were awarded as quickly and equitably as possible, while continuing to respect the policies and guidelines that apply to the AAP.

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