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Sports organizations disappointed in budget 2004

Liberals increase contribution after sports organizations appeal to public Canada’s leading amateur sports organizations didn’t hold back in expressing their disappointment with the proposed 2004 federal budget released by Finance Minister

Liberals increase contribution after sports organizations appeal to public

Canada’s leading amateur sports organizations didn’t hold back in expressing their disappointment with the proposed 2004 federal budget released by Finance Minister Ralph Goodale on March 22. Although $4 billion in new spending was announced for this fiscal year, none of that money was earmarked for Canada’s struggling athletes.

The Canadian Olympic Committee was surprised that their repeated requests for more funding were denied, especially with the Olympics coming to Canada.

"With Canada hosting the Olympic Winter Games in 2010, the time is now to invest in Canadian athletes," said COC president Michael Chambers. The COC is currently advocating an increase in government spending that would bring Canada’s investment up to par with other nations.

"The current low level of government investment in sport will not achieve the Olympic results Canadians desire and our athletes deserve," Chambers added.

In December, days after he was inaugurated as Prime Minister, Paul Martin appointed Stan Keyes as Minister of State for Sport, a cabinet-level position that sport advocacy groups have wanted for decades.

In February, representatives from the COC, Sport Matters, Athletes Can, national sport federations and Olympic athletes met with Members of Parliament, Senators and other senior government officials to present their vision for amateur sports in Canada, which included increased funding and athlete support. The meetings went well, which is why groups were disappointed to discover that athletics were left out in the 2004 budget.

Sport Canada, which funds groups like the COC and the Athlete Assistance Program, saw funding remain at $90 million.

A day after the COC and others complained to the media, Keyes increased the budget by another $10 million – $40 million short of the sum requested by the Sport Matters campaign.

"We see this funding as a prudent down payment on future federal investments," said Victor Lachance, senior leader of the Sport Matters Group which represents more than 60 national and provincial sport leaders and organizations. "This new money for sport, coupled with the $20 million that was kept in place (from the previous budget), is a welcome contribution that keeps the sport and physical activity file moving forward.

The COC plans to put all of that money towards Canadian senior and development level high performance athletes, says Chambers.

This is a crucial time for funding, with the Olympics in Greece this summer and the winter athletes qualifying for the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy next winter. There are also less than six years to go until Vancouver and Whistler host the 2010 Winter Games, and sport organizations are determined to shed the distinction of being the only host country never to win an Olympic gold medal at home.

Two of Whistler’s World Cup snowboard athletes, both national champions in the halfpipe this year, say more funding will mean better results.

"I have to work in the summers so I can pay for my trips, so it’s kind of tough," said 20-year-old Mercedes Nicoll, who earned a bronze medal on the World Cup circuit this season.

"I don’t get anything from Sport Canada. I have to get a top-16 in a World Championships, which only come around every two years, and I was pretty sick for that contest and only got 19 th so I just missed the funding," she said.

"I think there could definitely be more funding. That’s always an issue for me because I don’t have huge sponsors paying for everything, and it’s definitely a big issue."

While many of the top athletes get their way paid by sponsors, the number of sponsorships available is declining, especially for female athletes.

"At the moment I think that everything is super hard to get right now," said Nicoll.

Most factories have cut their teams down to a few athletes, and prefer to sponsor the riders in videos and pro contests like the X-Games rather than the World Cup circuit.

Although the prize money has increased for World Cup riders, the format is still challenging with only the top 12 men and top eight women making it through the qualifier into the finals. The Olympics are even harder to get into with only a handful of spots available to each country, based on World Cup and World Championship results.

Whistler’s Crispin Lipscomb, who has spent the last few years working towards the Olympics, does get some financial support from his sponsors, and qualified for monthly funding from Sport Canada’s Athlete Assistance Program. He will also receive two years of free post-secondary education through a new program offered by Sport Canada.

"I just have to get (that top-16) again in the World Championships next year to keep that funding," said Lipscomb.

"Is there more they could be doing? Yeah. It would be lovely to have more support for our travel, but now only the top male and female get their travel paid for and only half the time. Next year we’re doing nine World Cups, this year was only eight, so it’s pretty tough to pay for that. If they could kick travel money down to a few more of the riders it would be good."

Lipscomb also believes there should be more investment in training facilities and programs for national team athletes, starting with an Olympic quality halfpipe for summer training, as well as better pipes for the winter.

In order to train in the summer months, Lipscomb says he will pay out of his own pocket to train in Europe in May.

"There’s no halfpipe here so I have to fly to bloody Germany and spend another month away from home, and pay for it out of my own pocket," he said.

He will also travel to New Zealand and Chile to train during their winter seasons.

After spending just seven weeks in Whistler in the past five months, Lipscomb says he would give anything to stay at home and train, but that’s going to take an investment he said.

Nicoll says she’s fortunate that her summer job is working for a snowboard camp on Mount Hood in Oregon, and that she’ll get to sneak in her training as she coaches.

Ken Read, the president of Alpine Canada Alpin and a former World Cup downhiller, says the budget was positive in many ways.

"The good news was there was a small amount of additional funding in there, and they make reference to the $20 million of funding which was going to sunset and was preserved, so we did at least maintain with a little bit of an uptick," said Read.

"We’re at least maintaining and moving forward – maybe not as aggressively and ambitiously as all of us in the sport community would like."

According to Read the winter sports organizations estimate they need $30 million a year for the next six years on top of the current budget to be competitive in 2010. Some of that money will have to come from government, but most sport organizations are putting their faith in the corporate sector.

"The kinds of things I’d like to see from the federal government and the Minister of State for Sport, is that we’d like Stan Keyes be a very strong advocate for sport. We need him out in the public telling the message, getting to events. We believe he wants to do that, and we look forward to it because he does command media attention, especially at a time when Olympic sports aren’t at the forefront," said Read.

"We also need an advocate in the business community as well to continue on with the message that I do believe is starting to resonate among sponsors – that we do need to support Olympic sports, and how important it is to get the investment now, where it’s going to make the most difference to our athletes."

Sport organizations are also looking for ways to combine resources and cut costs, although Read says athlete needs are the first consideration in all of these cases. For example, the proposal to develop a year-round training centre on Farnham Galcier outside of Invermere will go ahead because it’s "one of the best glacier facilities we’ve seen for training in the world," said Read, and any cost savings from keeping Canadian winter athletes at home to train during the summer are secondary.