Question Period Note: Sport Reform

New measures to improve accountability and foster sustainable culture change in sport were announced in May 2023.

• The Government of Canada is committed to building a sport system that is safe and inclusive.

• That is why additional and concrete actions have been taken 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.

• These 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.

The following actions were announced on May 11, 2023:
• 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.
• Sport Canada will prohibit NSOs from restricting participants’ rights under the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport (UCCMS), including submitting complaints to the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner.
• NSOs will be required to appoint an athlete representative to the position of Board observer, and Sport Canada will dedicate up to $300,000 in funding to AthletesCAN to support governance training amongst other things.
• Sport Canada will announce the composition of an Athlete Advisory Committee and will be offering paid internships to national team athletes.
• Sport Canada will dedicate up to $1 million in funding to develop robust, consistent and system-wide tools and resources regarding abuse, discrimination and maltreatment.
• Funding of up to $250,000 will be provided to the Coaching Association of Canada to ensure appropriate certification and screening of all development and national team coaches, and for the development and promotion of training modules.
• The 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.
• Sport Canada is creating a new compliance unit which will monitor NSOs performance via action plans on governance and safe sport. These plans will need to be in place by April 2024 to access Sport Canada funding.

• The Government will review the current merit-based process and implement greater transparency for nominating and appointing members to the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada’s Board of Directors.

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