Canadian sport system `underfunded and unsafe,’ commission urges Ottawa to step up

Justice Lise Maisonneuve, who will lead the Future of Sport in Canada Commission, participates in a news conference with Minister of Sport and Physical Activity Carla Qualtrough, at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Canadian sport needs an overhaul, and it starts with the federal government.

That was the conclusion of the Future of Sport in Canada Commission’s final report released Tuesday.

The Canadian sport system is broken, fragmented and unsustainable, said Lise Maisonneuve, a former chief justice of the Ontario court of justice, who headed the commission.

The report issued 98 calls to action for phased-in change over five years, but starting immediately.

“There’s no doubt that the federal government must be the leader,” Maisonneuve said. “They must be the champion in order to protect Canadians and to develop a sports system that is safe, inclusive, fun and produces one of national pride and that produces elite athletes that we can all cheer on when they are on the international stage.

“The other champions are the Canadian public. There’s a duty on all of us to keep asking questions of the federal government as to what they will do with these calls to action and to ensure that they are implemented and that they are followed.”

Announced in December 2023 by former federal sports minister Carla Qualtrough, the commission was among various federal government responses to a tsunami of maltreatment and abuse reports, both current and historical, that surfaced after the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

The commission’s mandate was to make the Canadian sport system better and safer.

“As we discovered in our work, these two matters are deeply interconnected,” Maisonneuve said.

The commission held cross-country consultations, conducted a public survey, held a summit and issued two public reports over nearly two years.

Maisonneuve said the commission heard submissions from over 1,000 individuals, including 175 survivors of abuse and maltreatment.

She spoke of widespread and ongoing abuse at all levels of sport, fragmented and confusing complaint mechanisms, power imbalances creating a culture of silence and chronic underfunding.

“An underfunded sports system is an unsafe sports system,” she said.

Sport overall has become too expensive, inaccessible and exclusive for broad participation, Maisonneuve added.

Among the calls to action is the need for a single federal minister responsible for sport with a dedicated department. Sport currently falls under both the Heritage and Health portfolios.

The report also states there should be a centralized sport entity overseeing sport as a Crown corporation, which is structured like a private corporation, but under government control.

There have been eight changes in the federal leadership of sport over 15 years of Liberal government. Adam van Koeverden was appointed Secretary of State for Sport last year.

“I want Canadians to know, you can count on me,” he said Tuesday in Ottawa. “We have a document which lays out the future of sport in Canada.

“This is the most important document potentially ever in Canadian sport. I welcome the findings and look forward to doing the work.

“I want to acknowledge that it was the voices of survivors that broke the culture of silence in Canada. It is their bravery and courage that have created a pathway forward for a better Canada through sport.”

Olympic moguls skier Philippe Marquis, who now coaches Freestyle Canada’s young talent, took a wait-and-see approach to the final report. He lauded the commission for its work.

“The one thing that keeps my optimism alive is the fact that we have a bit of this perfect storm right now,” said the 36-year-old from Quebec City.

“The recipe, the elements are here at this specific time to be transformational, so I am optimistic because of that. If we speak in three months, six months and nothing has moved and there’s no light in sight, I think there will be a wave of discouragement across the system.

“The report is great. It’s based on fact. It’s concrete. It’s real. We’ve never had such a good portrait of the whole Canadian sports system.”

Funding was a common thread in the report. The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic committees have asked on behalf of national sport organizations in two successive federal budgets for an increase in core funding, which they say has been stagnant since 2005.

The most recent ask was for a $144-million increase in core funding, which is annual money NSOs count on to fund operations, athletes, coaches and support staff. One of the commission’s calls to action is for every sport organization that receives federal funding to have a safe sport officer on staff.

“There are several aspects of the report’s findings, and it’s 98 calls to action that speak to me, especially the ones that are labelled most urgent,” said COC chief executive officer David Shoemaker.

“There’s an urgent need to create the safest possible sport system in this country, which we always regarded as a non-negotiable and invested tens of millions of dollars in doing.

“The commissioner identified an urgent need to increase core funding to national sport organizations, which we’ve long identified as something that needs to occur, and is quite frankly linked with a safe-sport system. And she identified as an urgent priority compensation for athletes and their own situations in becoming high-performance athletes.”

The commission’s report also addressed the need for diversity, equity and inclusion in sport, and emphasized investment in Indigenous-led sport.

Canadian Paralympic Committee chief executive officer Karen O’Neill said para sport shouldn’t be treated as an add-on in the sport system.

“Equity requires attention and intentional investment,” she said. “Investment in terms of dollars, investment in terms of strategy and policy.

“Leadership in Canadian sport right now means building equity into the system from the start and not adding it as an afterthought. That means reconstructing, rethinking how we set up programs.”

The federal government spends over $250 million annually on sports. A 2023-24 report put the figure at $266.8 million for high-performance sport, hosting international events, increasing participation and improving safe sport practices

With a file from Catherine Morrison in Ottawa.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2026.