Future of Sport in Canada Commission seeks to hear from Ottawa sport community on Feb. 13

By Dan Plouffe

The Ottawa sport community is being asked to share its views with the Future of Sport in Canada Commission in an upcoming meeting on Feb. 13.

The Ottawa Sport Council recently shared an invite from the Commission to participate in the 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. meeting in person downtown or virtually. Registration is available via SportOttawa.ca.

The Commission was developed largely in response to a slew of safe-sport incidents reported by numerous Canadian athletes in recent years.

Its mandate is focused on “improving the sport system in Canada, including but not limited to policy, funding structures, governance, reporting, accountability, conflicts of interest, systems alignment, culture, and legal considerations” and “improving safe sport in Canada, including trauma-informed approaches to support sport participants in the disclosure of and healing from maltreatment.”

Similar meetings have already been held in other parts of Canada, including Regina, Quebec City, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Victoria and Vancouver. Participants can request confidential in-camera meetings, and there is a portal to make submissions.

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The Ottawa Sport Council shared its own submission to the Commission alongside the invitation, which reflects a great deal of the advocacy work the OSC has performed in recent years.

The first item the Council highlights is a “call for a champion” to “invest and lead in the development of safe spaces to play.”

“I think looking the future of sport in Ottawa, that has a lot to do with the people, but it also has a lot to do with the places,” Frances Mercer said when asked about her anticipated priorities for the OSC after being introduced as the organization’s new executive director at the 10th Ottawa Sport Summit on Nov. 30.

Read More: Ottawa Sport Council welcomes new executive director Frances Mercer from Tennis Centre West Ottawa

“More integration around community use of schools and gymnasiums, college and university facilities, creation of multi-sport places and commitment to lifecycle of failing infrastructure will expand participation for years to come,” reads the Sport Council’s submission. “We need a system where governments, municipalities, agencies, national and provincial bodies work in parallel to plan for the current and future development of where we play. Without spaces we have nothing.”

The Council also appealed for more funding options to provide inclusive programs, while noting that sport has the power to unite individuals and communities regardless of status, race, age, religion or gender.

With 73% of grassroots community sport groups in Canada run by volunteers, the Council also asked for better education tools, and that the community sport sector be granted “a seat at the table” with national and provincial agencies.

Marci Morris, who led the OSC since it was founded in 2013 before handing off to Mercer, said she’s very proud of the leading role OSC has played in Canada to create resources for community-level sport, such as the Ottawa Safe Sport Toolkit. But taking on that role was a source of frustration at the same time.

“Our sport system in Canada is fractured,” Morris said in November. “What happens at the national level is for national-level athletes. What happens at the provincial level is for provincial-level athletes, and the little local athletes and community sport organizations are left to fend for themselves.

“Oftentimes, so much gets pushed down upon that sector that has so many volunteers, and we’re expecting so much of these volunteers, and yet we aren’t providing them with the resources, either financial or otherwise, to make sure that they’re doing a good job and to help them do a good job.”

Following consultations and a preliminary report, the Commission will be holding a National Summit on the Future of Sport, which is expected to occur no later than this summer.