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With the Paris Olympics less than five months away, Canada’s sports bodies have put out a plea for more cash.
What happened: The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees (COC and CPC) submitted a budget request to the feds for $104 million in extra annual funding to cover rising operational costs of increased stakeholder demands, made clear by a new Deloitte report.
- The funding is to be distributed down to Canada’s 61 national sports organizations (NSO), like Canada Soccer, Canoe Kayak Canada, or Canada DanceSport.
Why it’s happening: Canada hasn’t increased federal sports funding since 2005. Per Deloitte, this has led to increased cost pressures for NSOs, especially as they’ve been tasked with (expensive) new goals like gender equity initiatives and mental health support.
Why it matters: Canadian sports bodies simply can’t operate without this cash, as 90% of NSOs rely primarily on federal funding to keep the lights on. Yet Canada lags behind other countries with similar GDPs and population sizes when it comes to sports spending.
- The feds invest ~$200 million annually into the country’s sports system. For example, that’s smaller than Australia’s federal funding (~$285.5 million as of 2022) and the budget for Italy’s mostly federally funded Olympic body (~$279 million as of 2023).
Big picture: It’s unclear how receptive the feds will be to COC and CPC’s message. The call for funding comes at a time when there is increased scrutiny over the way NSOs are run, as bodies like Hockey Canada and Gymnastics Canada contend with massive scandals.—QH