SPOR Committee Meeting

SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE STUDY OF SPORT IN CANADA OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON CANADIAN HERITAGE

SOUS-COMITÉ SUR L'ÉTUDE DU SPORT AU CANADA DU COMITÉ PERMANENT DU PATRIMOINE CANADIEN

EVIDENCE

[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]

Wednesday, November 21, 2001

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[English]

The Chair (Mr. Dennis Mills (Toronto—Danforth, Lib.)): Colleagues from the House of Commons, just before we hear from our witnesses, I want to say to you that the men and women who are here today on our industry of sport subcommittee are men and women who believe passionately that a whole person is developed and can only be developed if they have an athletic activity, a recreational sport activity, as part of their existence.

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Today, we are especially honoured to have two very special witnesses in front of us from Olympic Aid. Anne Peel is a world-class athlete, a specialist in child development, and the executive director of Olympic Aid. Johann Olav Koss is an Olympian who won four gold medals, and he is the founder of Olympic Aid.

I will not even begin to describe all the things Olympic Aid has done. We will just go right to you folks. You have the floor.

Mr. Johann Olav Koss (President, Olympic Aid): Thank you, Mr. Mills and dear members of the committee.

It is a great honour for us to be able to testify in front of you in order to explain what we are doing in the field of child development to help children around the world develop and for the world to become a better place.

We have a PowerPoint presentation that is going to come up behind us. It just adds to the speaking notes. I apologize in advance that it's in English only on PowerPoint, but the paper we have delivered to you follows the presentation in French as well as English. I also apologize to the committee for my lack of French. It's very bad.

First of all, our purpose today is to present Olympic Aid as an organization. We would like to take this opportunity to describe our history, our programs and initiatives, and their benefits. We would like to go into some benefits of sport and play for children, particularly in the developing world. We also want to focus a bit on Canada's involvement.

What is Olympic Aid? Olympic Aid is an athlete-driven humanitarian organization that focuses on having athletes all around the world helping children. We have global programming and policy. As an athlete-driven humanitarian organization, part of our mission is to use sport and play to further child development for children living in situations of disadvantage. By 2005, Olympic Aid will be known globally for the strength of its sport and play programs for all children, and as a world leader in sport for development—and we'll come back to that.

Our objective is clearly to implement sport and play programs to further child development. To that end, we develop supporting research and policy. As we are part of the Olympic movement, we also endorse the Olympic ideals between the Games every day of a child's life, while knowing the Olympic Games are arranged every fourth year. We also raise funds for and raise awareness of these children living in these situations of disadvantage.

I want to refer to some of the key milestones in our history. We were founded in Norway in 1993, at the time of the Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee, for the Games of the Lillehammer Olympics. Over the course of the Lillehammer Games, we raised about $18 million and used it to support particularly the children in Sarajevo. As you know, the Bosnian civil war was happening at the time. We provided medical care and built a hospital in the city of Sarajevo.

We also included support for Eritrea—the liberated country on the Horn of Africa—Afghan refugees, disabled war victims in Lebanon, and children in Guatemala. These things were very successful, particularly within the history and legacy of the Olympic Games in Lillehammer, because every single Norwegian donated and supported the programs of Olympic Aid. Realize that only 4 million people live in Norway. We raised $18 million from the public. We challenged them to donate the equivalent of about one dollar per gold medal. We were very successful, having won more than ten gold medals. It functioned well.

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In 1996, we worked at the Atlanta Games and raised about $13 million, with part of that going to a vaccination program. Through UNICEF, we vaccinated more than 12.2 million children in fifteen wartorn areas. In August 2000, we had a field trip Sudan and Eritrea with Silken Laumann, who is also chairwoman of Olympic Aid Canada, and Mike Powell and Trent Dimas, who are two very well known American athletes. At the games in Sydney, we raised around $5 million. In April 2001, Olympic Aid became an implementing partner of children's programs for refugee children through our Coach2Coach program—and I'll come back to that later.

We have the support of a huge number of international athletes. We have mentioned some of them on this slide, but in Canada we are supported by Daniel Igali, Simon Whitfield, Silken Laumann, and Waneek Horn-Miller, some of the Canadian heroes we know very well. Numerous other Canadian athletes, supporters, and ambassadors are also in our programs.

In terms of the structure of Olympic Aid, it's headed by Jacques Rogge, who is the new president of the International Olympic Committee. He is also the president of the Foundation Council of Olympic Aid, in Switzerland. I am the president and chairman of Olympic Aid's executive board. We also have Anne Peel as executive director of the international programs. She runs all the international programs and our international headquarters. Anne is currently functioning out of Canada, in Toronto.

Or initiatives are in-country programs, athlete programs, education programs, and Olympic city programs. As an overview, in the in-country programs, we have partnered with the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization in order to have a global sport health program. This is the largest vaccination program in the world, supported by the largest fund in the world, called the Vaccine Fund. That fund is a $1-billion-plus fund to provide vaccination for children.

Olympic Aid is answering a demand in the population, and is using athletes in the individual countries to explain the benefits of vaccination and physical activity. We'll be working very hard in a public social marketing campaign in emerging countries in the next five years, not only to provide a message of health through vaccination, but to provide a message to children about the fun of being healthy and by letting them have fun in sports at their time of vaccination.

A very quick example is what is going to happen in Ghana on December 15. We are going to have a sports and health festival in Accra, where, for the first time, thousands of children are going be invited to be vaccinated against yellow fever. At the same time, they're all going to play on the main sports field. They're going to play sports activities and be attracted to the vaccine festival because we're having that sports festival at the same time. This is a project we're going to expand to 74 emerging countries, in partnership with the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization.

I mentioned the refugee program. We are now in more than thirty refugee camps around the world, providing opportunities for children to dream and hope by giving them hope through sport, through playing. We are the first ones to fulfill this primary need for those children in areas where we know inactivity has been the largest activity they've ever had.

We meet children full of anger and disbelief, children with a total lack of self-confidence or self-esteem, or even a without a belief in adults. We provide them with sports and play programs in the camps. This is important, because it gives them hope. Very soon, I will show you a piece from a video from the Luffa refugee camp in Sudan. That was a camp for Eritrean refugees, since we know what the Eritrean refugee situation was last year.

We also work in partnership with UNICEF and the United Nations Secretary General on the issue of child soldiers. In January, we will implement a program in Sierra Leone, in part to disarm child soldiers and remobilize them into society. It's very important to get children to become active and to get them—and particularly child soldiers—back into and accepted in their own communities, but it's also important to prevent them from going back to being child soldiers. Sport has been seen as the only effective tool in this regard. We cannot seem to keep them in schools, as it is too boring. Physical activity is needed there, so sports programs are the first step toward getting them back into society.

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In partnership with UNICEF, we are also working on the HIV orphans program. I will come back to the needs of the HIV orphans, but we know millions and millions of orphans today need to be supported. We're particularly focusing on the youngest orphans—those aged zero to five—to give them some physical and emotional stimuli. These things are incredibly important for child development. We know that if we lose one year, they've lost twenty of their development years. We know we need to go in and touch them, teach them how to walk, to talk, to move, and to play. If those children are not taught those things, we know they won't be capable adults when they grow up. Sports and play programs are the key factor for that development. Through our child development programs, we have targeted them to help them reach developmental milestones in those areas.

In partnership with the World Health Organization, we're working with education programs in the sense of reaching more than forty countries on World Health Day, which is dedicated to physical fitness next year. We want to do that through our 5 Rings Program—and I'll come back to the 5 Rings Program and what it implements.

We also do policy programs. It is incredibly important to understand policy so that we can get governmental and organizational support for the belief in how sport and play can help child development. We have partnered with the UN's Special Adviser to the Secretary General on Sport for Development and Peace, Mr. Adolf Ogi. He is in very close partnership with the Secretary General. We're writing a Declaration on Sport for Development and Peace, and I'll come back to that as well.

On the refugee program, quickly, there are more than 22.4 million refugees, and over 15 million of them are children. None of them receive any type of sport and play programs, with the exception of the thirty camps that we are in.

In terms of the sport health program, we know that each year, 30 million children are not vaccinated against the primary preventable diseases. In partnership with the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization and the Vaccine Fund, we want to reduce that 30 million to less than 10 million. We want to reduce the annual number of related deaths from 3 million to 1 million in the next five years.

Looking at the HIV orphans program, as I mentioned, there are 11.2 million orphans of HIV/AIDS due to the epidemic. We know that will double, and maybe even quadruple, in the next ten years.

I mentioned the athletes program. I want to note that, because it is incredibly important to use role models in our society to provide strong leadership figures. We have been incredibly fortunate to have hundreds of athletes all around the world acting as leaders and role models in order to support the importance of giving these benefits to children. They represent us both through our programs in the field or through our fundraising efforts all around the world, or they become spokespersons through the media or directly to governments.

I mentioned the education program. It will be launched during a one-day partnership with a physical activity, on World Health Day next year, on April 7.

During the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, I will try to take one moment to see that the Salt Lake Organizing Committee is 100% behind these initiatives that support children's development through sport and play all around the world, and that particularly target those children who will never become Olympic champions or even participate in the Games. These are the children who are the most disadvantaged.

On February 9, we'll have a round-table discussion with the leaders of all United Nations agencies in attendance, discussing how sport can help development, health, and peace. This will be broadcasted, and the rights will be given to 180 worldwide broadcasters. They will be given press releases and the opportunity to reach all these people, so that we can get the message out from the Olympics.

As I mentioned, we are now in eight countries in Africa and Asia, and we have about fourteen teams of volunteers. Our organization is based on volunteer coaches. We have more than thirty Canadian volunteers currently out in the field. These are young people coming from a background either in coaching or in physical education. They volunteer six to twelve months of their time to go out in the field to make this change. They go into the field to train other coaches, young people 14 years old and up, to be individuals and leaders in their communities in order to bring the program forward in those areas. It's built on volunteerism, on bringing the spirit of Canadian volunteerism to other countries, in order to help the people there learn how they can use that spirit to help children all around the world and in their own local communities.

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Quickly, as you see, we have a number of partnerships and alliances, and a particularly close relationship with the United Nations, UNICEF, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Health Organization, the Vaccine Fund, and the Centers for Disease Control. We also have numerous partnerships in the sports world. I particularly want to mention the Canadian Olympic Association and the Commonwealth Games Association of Canada, which have been incredibly supportive and have partnered with us over the time we have been established in Canada, which has been for more than a year now.

I want to quickly go into the importance of sport and play. I'll refer to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 31(1) says:

States Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.

This is the basis of our guiding principle, which is inclusion. We need to be committed to every child's right to play, regardless of gender, race, religion, birthplace, disability, or socio-economic status.

We believe we are developing a sustainable program. It is incredibly important to give a knowledge base to the coaches in the field, because they are the new volunteers. The new Olympic Aid coaches are trained there, so we're dedicated to creating programs that will be sustainable in the local communities.

Under the guiding principle, you will see the evolving importance of female children. As we know, it's incredibly important to start working with young girls in the community and to have them as participants in sports programs. It's taking them outside the box. It takes them to a point at which they become accepted, and at which they teach themselves leadership skills and the acceptance of doing things differently from what others have done. As we have proven through our research, this is bringing them incredible self-esteem. That self-esteem then builds up as they go through the education system, allowing them to get scholarships and to become leaders in their own societies. And we involve female coaches, too. That's important.

We work with children with disabilities. We know all the benefits that sport has for them. And we also work with the ethnic and racial minority groups, actively promoting children's involvement.

Olympic Aid has what is called the 5 Rings Program. I quickly want to go through it, because every ring means something for us: mind, body, peace, health, and spirit. Each ring stands for something, so this is a holistic development. The five overlapping rings symbolize the interrelated nature of each aspect of a child's total development. Holistic development requires that, simultaneously, the child's mind be stimulated, its spirit be enhanced, its body be strengthened, its health be supported, and its tendency toward peaceful practices be encouraged. This is the essential objective of our 5 Rings Program, and I will we just go through this pretty quickly.

Each of the five rings has a special objective in this line, and each supports a particular place. I would like to look at health. The ring of health supports the importance, for instance, of the prevention of HIV/AIDS. We have game activities to teach children how the infections are transmitted. For instance, the “fostering peace” part, the red ring, we work to help children communicate and understand differences.

The importance of sport and play has numerous effects. I would like to tell you one story before I end and you ask us questions.

I was in Rwanda after the genocide in 1994. I visited in 1996. I met a child there, a little girl. She was 5 years old. She was coming to our first sport and health vaccination festival. She was going to run a relay with all these other children, showing the rest of the world how proud she was, how good she was at running this thing. She was a beautiful, smiling little girl. When I saw her, she was on the back of a pickup truck. I didn't really notice it as she jumped off, but she only had one leg. Her other leg was a wooden leg, but she was still the smallest and fastest of all those running out there.

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I was wondering what her story was. I sat down and talked to her and her people. She explained to me that in 1994, as we know, there were three horrible of the most months in Rwandan history, when the genocide took place. Her hut was attacked, her parents were killed in front of her, and she had to hide under their bodies. She was frightened, and she had to run and hide for more than a year. She did not speak for more than two years after that event. She didn't say a word. She didn't touch anyone. She was afraid of every single adult.

Incredibly enough, she was picked up by a UNICEF psychologist and was brought into our program when we did the partnership with UNICEF. She played sports on the fields, but she still never said a word for two years. On one of the sports fields, someone was doing something wrong, and she screamed out all of a sudden. She said someone broke a rule, and she wanted to tell that person. All of a sudden, it was an opening for that little girl when the other one smiled and they could start communicating. We could then get her story. I met her only two months later, when she was participating in this festival and was working hard to be able to show her friends how good she had become.

I think this is one of the most incredible stories in terms of the importance of how we can use sport and play for recovery and for reintegrating hopes and dreams in a children's minds, so that they can live a proper life, so that we can prevent hate, and so that we can give them what they deserve the most: to think about themselves as human beings.

I would like to let you be with that. We have a video we want to show before we go into questions, if that's okay, Mr. Mills.

The Chair: Mr. Koss, we've been informed that we have some technical difficulties with the video, so we'll have to make that video available to members in their offices at a later date.

Mr. Johann Koss: That's great. We will do that.

The Chair: Thank you very much. We will now move to questions, and we will start with Mr. Lanctôt.

[Translation]

Do you have any questions, Mr. Lanctôt?

Mr. Robert Lanctôt (Châteauguay, BQ): Yes, I have several questions for Mr. Koss, but I'll wait until he's ready.

[English]

The Chair: While we're waiting for the translators to get organized, colleagues, I just want to assure you that everyone will have a chance to ask Johann and Anne whatever questions you want to ask.

[Translation]

You have the floor, Mr. Lanctôt.

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: Mr. Koss, your organization has been around since 1994. Since that time, how have you approached member countries? Which countries in fact belong to your organization? How many help fund your operations? What type of activities or causes are supported? I see a few listed in your submission.

I have another question. I also note in your submission that Canada contributed a total of $180,000 last year, while Norway, among others, contributed a total of $700,000. Had you approached Canada in the past or was this the first time since 1994 that you had requested some financial assistance from Canada?

[English]

Mr. Johann Koss: First of all, we have received government funding from several different countries around the world. As you can see in my document, we refer to the Norwegian government, which originally donated money to Olympic Aid in 1994. They have continued doing that over the years. We also refer to the Australian government, the United States government, and the Canadian government. We received funding from the Minister of Foreign Affairs last year in regard to our initiation—

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: From Canada?

Mr. Johann Koss: From Canada, yes—for the initiation of our refugee program, as well as for policy programs under the auspices of the policy providing, to the UN governments, the importance of sport and play.

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We have now requested additional funding, and we are in talks with the Canadian International Development Agency, CIDA, to find funding for our programs in the future, starting from 2002. With the initiation funding we obtained last year, we have been able to establish our headquarters here, as part of that funding agreement was that we would be based in Canada. As we say, we are working on a three- to five-year plan with CIDA, and we're working on that for the near future. Nothing has been made public, and we haven't come to an agreement on funding, but we are looking at the possibilities there.

The second part of your question deals with placing these governments together in the sense of collaborative efforts. We have not done that as of yet in terms of inviting these different governments to the plate. But as you see from the list of member governments that have provided us funds, the links between those governments are very strong. There are very strong connections between the Norwegian and Canadian governments, just as there are between the Canadian and Australian governments. There are also very strong connections with the State Department in the United States. I know the information has been flowing between those governments without our participation.

[Translation]

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: So, if I understand correctly, only those governments mentioned in your document currently lend financial support to your organization. These would include the governments of Canada, Australia, Norway and the United States.

[English]

Mr. Johann Koss: That's true, with the exception being the European Union, which donated about $5 million in 1996. We are in the process of negotiating with the Dutch government, again with the European Union, and with the Swiss government, and we have proposals with the U.K. and Danish governments at the moment in addition to those. We are in discussions with those governments already.

[Translation]

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: Does Canada's $180,000 contribution, as noted earlier, apply both to Foreign Affairs and to CIDA programs, or only to the Coach2Coach program?

[English]

Ms. Johann Koss: We are applying to CIDA solely for the program funding additional to what we have received. What we received was for this year. We are now applying for 2002 at CIDA, as well as for 2003 and 2004.

[Translation]

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: Is that included in the $180,000 or is this an additional amount?

[English]

Mr. Johann Koss: No.

[Translation]

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: That is over and above the initial contribution.

The Chair: Yes, it's an additional amount.

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: Okay.

[English]

Mr. Johann Koss: We have not received CIDA funding before, if that's what you are asking. This is only from DFAIT.

[Translation]

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: I see. It's money yet to come.

[English]

Mr. Johann Koss: Yes, hopefully that's the way it's going to go.

[Translation]

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: How much time do I have left, Mr. Chairman?

The Chair: You'll have time to ask more questions during the second round.

Do you have any questions for the witness, Mr. Mark?

[English]

Mr. Inky Mark (Dauphin—Swan River, PC/DR): Yes, I do. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

First, let me welcome both of you this afternoon, and congratulate both of you personally for your achievements. I certainly congratulate you, Mr. Koss, for your noble endeavour to create this organization. There's no doubt that the results show your commitment to the children of the world, using sport as a springboard. Around this table and in this country, we certainly all believe the world's children are really the world's future, so you are certainly doing your part to change the world. Sport, like music, transcends all borders and all cultures.

As a former teacher, I'm interested in your relationship with the sports education of children in school systems where they exist, and outside of school systems where they don't exist. Do you have proportions or numbers in terms of which stage you operate in? Are you encountering challenges with the education systems of countries in which those education systems exist?

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Ms. Anne Peel (Executive Director, Olympic Aid): The answer to that has two parts. Overseas, our programs are sometimes delivered through schools, either in the refugee camps themselves or in some of the situations that we're in just in towns and villages. So we do work through the schools overseas, but it's quite informal. We deliver the 5 Rings Program, which is the physical activity component, and it really becomes a core part of the physical activity in these schools.

In Canada, we haven't yet gotten started with the education program. Here, we want to create a more comprehensive program that will teach youth physical activity and teach Canadian children about children living overseas. So there will be two components: the physical activity and the programming through the 5 Rings Program, but also very much the in-classroom, cross-curricular piece that builds empathy and teaches about children around the world.

We have initiated a partial program both in Utah, in partnership with the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, or SLOC, and the Utah Department of Health. That program is a variation on the 5 Rings Program, and it's part of a bigger schooling package called “A Healthier You 2002”, which again concentrates on the empathy component, but also more on the physical activity component. We'll also be doing the same thing in Washington in early December, in partnership with two schools in that state.

As far as obstacles go, we're still very much in the process in Canada.

Mr. Inky Mark: Mr. Koss, you had indicated that Olympians certainly have a huge role to play as role models to children. Understanding that, I think kids watch professional sports as well, equally. I think the professional athletes have a responsibility to youth as much as anyone else does. I was wondering if any relationships exist with the professional athletes of the world in terms of getting together and working together.

Mr. Johann Koss: I think that's a great question. We certainly transport the message to the professional sports as well, as professional sports are being included in the Olympic Games more and more. In that sense, some of our ambassadors are regarded as professional athletes in this country, as well as in the United States.

I think that is a really important point, because we want to reach into the professional leagues more with our message. We're interested in becoming an international program developer for them, using their role models, educating them about the importance of sport and play for children, and creating an emphasis on the value of sport for children, so that the professionals can become good and valuable spokespersons for the children of the world.

Mr. Inky Mark: It's a little ironic, because many professional athletes start at the Olympic level. That's where they come from, so I'm glad to hear that.

Thank you.

The Chair: Ms. Phinney.

Ms. Beth Phinney (Hamilton Mountain, Lib.): My question is a follow-up on Mr. Mark's in terms of how we can support your cause. I started thinking about the fact that most of our schools in Ontario now do not have physical education—at least, I think I'm correct on that. If we're not doing it ourselves, how can we help somebody else to do it, or encourage them? Maybe you need to tell us that we need to have physical education in our schools. I don't know if that's the case just in Ontario, but—

Mr. Inky Mark: It's not compulsory in a lot of the provinces.

Ms. Beth Phinney: No, even at the elementary level, the children aren't taking sports. They're certainly not taking it in secondary schools.

I was thinking of the land mines organization. They're having a big night on Friday, November 30, and I'm wondering what you would see us doing for you?

We could certainly ask CIDA and Foreign Affairs to provide more money, but each member of Parliament has his or her own riding. Is there anything yet, or are you still back at the stage at which you're working on something in Utah? Do you have a program we could try to put out in our ridings by putting it in the householders we send our four times a year? Can we help in any way?

Mr. Johann Koss: I'll start answering, and Anne can take the second part of the answer, because what you're mentioning is fantastic.

First of all, we all can help by giving everybody the understanding that sport and play is important for every single individual in the world. It's not only important for children and youths—which we target—but for everybody. It is important for our physical well-being. It will save an enormous amount of money in our health budgets.

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Coming in today, I was reading in the newspaper that the Province of Ontario is going to close down 85 pools. That worries me, because we don't really see the importance of physical activity in our own country. We need to see that, because it will prevent many diseases and many other things in the future. It is incredibly important, so that is in the basis.

Everybody at this table can go out and tell everybody that they may not have the greatest experience in sport and play themselves, but that we all need to do it, we all need to do more of it, and we need to promote opportunities for children to be active. It's incredibly important, because if you have a positive experience as a young child in sport, you will keep doing it for the rest of your life. It will prevent bad behaviour, it will prevent the use of illegal or legal drugs, and it will also give you a lifelong sport activity.

When it comes to exactly what we want to do, we want to get support from your committee to help us to establish a stronger network in Canada. We have programs that we want to increase through the education programs. We'd like to introduce a cross-curricular project all across Canada. But we also want to help the disadvantaged people in Canada. We have looked at first nations, as well as at some inner-city programs. I think it's really important to target those.

On that, I'll give the word to Anne.

Ms. Anne Peel: There's not much to add. It's still in the developmental stage, but we want to introduce it. We're working with the Aboriginal Sports Circle and with other representatives from the first nations to develop a program that we can implement in aboriginal communities, both on reserve, off reserve, and in urban communities. We're focusing on one in Edmonton, where there is an aboriginal high school. We're introducing our program there. It's a work in progress, and we're actually hoping to initiate that programming in the spring.

As far as the school programming is concerned, we're also hoping to have something designed for it. We're working in Ontario with OPHEA, the Ontario Physical and Health Education Association, to have it distributed and picked up in the schools of Ontario. Again, we're hoping to start that in the fall of 2002.

The Chair: Just before we go to Serge, if it's the will of the members of this committee, and if they feel it is appropriate that Olympic Aid be recommended and supported, perhaps we could craft a motion that we could present to the appropriate ministers so that they could consider it.

Serge.

[Translation]

Mr. Serge Marcil (Beauharnois—Salaberry, Lib.): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'm prepared to move a motion to that effect. Obviously, we support this organization which plays a fundamental role. From a global perspective, this is a new initiative, although many other projects have been undertaken in this field.

I want to congratulate Mr. Koss and Ms. Peel, especially Mr. Koss. I had the good fortune of being introduced to him in Lausanne during a meeting of the board of directors of the World Anti-Doping Agency. I believe he serves on the board as the representative of Olympic athletes. He is a tireless supporter of Canada and of Montreal. An outstanding athlete, he won several gold medals in Norway. Fortunately for us, he married a Canadian and is now a Canadian himself.

I fervently hope that this organization will expand throughout the world. In order for that to happen, it needs the supports of all countries, starting with Canada. That's why I'm prepared to move a formal motion to this effect, Mr. Chairman.

I also have a question for the witness. I spent 20 years working in the field of education, particularly in Senegal. I'd like to know if your organization can lend its support to sport- study programs in African countries like Senegal and Ghana. These programs would give street kids an opportunity to return to school with the help of sports program like football or soccer.

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[English]

Mr. Johann Koss: What you have said is incredibly important, and I totally agree with you. When we enter a country, for instance, we look at the organizations working within those countries in education, but also in other areas. We look particularly at the United Nations organizations, like the High Commissioner for Refugees, UNICEF, and others, and we try to determine how we can work with and supplement what they are already doing. We are not going to take over what other people are doing, because they are providing other primary needs. We want to supplement them and help them to achieve a better holistic approach. That's the first, really important part.

In our programs in the field, where we have actually introduced sport into the school systems, our measures have reduced the drop-out rate at the schools by more than 30% from first to sixth grade, both in Eritrea and in Angola. That seems to have happened just with introduction of fun physical activity. It keeps the children at school.

In principle, what we have seen through our studies is that the children argue more to go to school because they have fun when they go. That is actually incredibly important, because it builds that into the education system. It's actually leverage.

In other studies that we've seen—we haven't personally researched this, but we have done a summary of the research—we've found that achievement in school is actually better when the children have recreation and physical activity at the school. Therefore, I think it's a very simple tool when you want to achieve higher levels. Certainly, there is demand in our communities for higher-level education and for children to be smarter, better, faster, and higher-reaching. Physical activity will help them to reach those goals. As we've also found through research, if we're excluding that activity, it will actually limit them in their understanding of educational subjects, including maths, physics, languages, and those other important parts of education.

I hope that answers your question.

[Translation]

The Chair: Thank you, Serge.

[English]

Hélène Scherrer, and then we go to Monsieur Lanctôt.

[Translation]

Ms. Hélène Scherrer (Louis-Hébert, Lib.): I must congratulate you as well. I'm always a little envious when I hear of initiatives like this for not having come up with the idea myself. It's a simple idea, and why I didn't think of it myself, I'll never know. Therefore, I encourage you to keep up the good work.

In your brief, you draw a parallel of sorts between the Olympic movement and of your organization, Olympic Aid. I find that comparison somewhat paradoxical, given that the Olympic movement is a far cry indeed from what you are striving to accomplish today. The Olympic movement is all about the quest for excellence and the making of heros. It has become a virtual commercial undertaking. I'm not certain that people talk about the pleasure of taking part in the Olympics. It may be an enjoyable experience only for the television viewers or for the athletes that win medals.

Olympic Aid is all about the joy of sport. It provides an outlet for socialization through basic sporting activities requiring the minimum amount of equipment. It's provides a way of reaching people through literacy and education. The Olympic movement and Olympic Aid are poles apart.

Where do you see the parallel between the two movements? When it comes to heros, I'm certain that in many of the locations to which you travel,

[English]

most young people don't know who Silken Laumann is.

[Translation]

Often it's not because it's there, but rather because someone thought of the idea and believed in it. How do you recruit these individuals? How can the Olympic movement help you in a tangible way? For example, once the Olympic Games are over, do you manage to get your hands on some of the used materials. I'm not talking about hammers and javelins or that sort of thing, but about basic items like skates, balls or other items that could be of use to you and that are discarded by the Olympic athletes once the games are over. What happens to these items? Staging the Olympic Games is a very expensive proposition. Can you recover any of the clothing worn by the athletes? The benefits of that would be tremendous.

I'd like to focus for a moment on the motion on the table. It's very easy to say that we support Olympic Aid and to adopt a motion. However, I'd like each and everyone one of you to think about doing something very specific, albeit on a small scale. After all, it's the little things that count. It's not just a matter of saying

[English]

“I agree. I'm in favour.”

[Translation]

We need to do something tangible in each of our ridings.

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For example, we could get involved in recruiting athletes. Or we could contact people who might be willing to donate materials or other similar items. I'd like you to think of something specific that we could ask our constituents to do. Ultimately, 300 MPs could make a significant contribution through their efforts.

[English]

Mr. Johann Koss: Thank you very much, Madame Scherrer. That is a great statement of support that you've given to us, both as an organization and as individual people. We appreciate not only your comments, but those of all your colleagues as well in that regard, because they give us encouragement. I will try to address all the issues you brought up to us, because there were a number. I hope I got every one of them down.

First of all, the Olympic movement is actually more than what you see on TV, and that is what Olympic Aid stands for. We want to be in every single child's mind every day of their lives. The Olympic movement stands for more than excellence. It stands for collaboration, fair play, and peace. It also stands for dreams and hope.

I will use myself as an example. When I was child, I was a known, talented boy who had the opportunity to pursue his sport. It was an amazing chance that I had. I was dreaming about the Olympics and I wanted to get to them, but I never thought I could. In that sense, I remember all the opportunities I was given when I was a child, to be able to pursue my dream and my goals. That's what we want to give back, as athletes.

You asked how Silken Laumann can be recognized in Eritrea. I'll tell you they had no idea who Silken Laumann was. They didn't even know what rowing was. They didn't know who Johann Koss was, and they didn't have a word for speed skating. But they know what an Olympic champion is, and it's amazing how that brings them in. They also know that when we go there and give them a solid program that is there every single day, and one that is also there when we leave, it's important. The athletes can give that dream and that hope to them every single day, and can know it has made a change in the lives of those people maybe not that day, but tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that.

We are using a lot of equipment, as you explained. We use very simple sports. We prioritize five sports. Soccer football is a very important one, because it's liked very much. Basketball is a big one, as are volleyball, track and field, and netball, which is a Commonwealth sport that is very popular as well. We also look to traditional sports. We introduce them and help these people to promote their own traditional sports and those kinds of things.

Equipment-wise, we really need to create a system that builds the responsibility of the community for the equipment. It's not done on an individual basis. When we go into a camp or a village or any other place, we build a sports council. We build it with people representing all parts of the community—ethnic background, religious background, men, women, those with disabilities, and those without disabilities. The councils include all parts. All these places have to form their own sports councils, and those councils become responsible for the equipment so that the equipment is not resold. One of the big issues you face—we don't face it anymore—when you provide things is that you don't want to have the equipment resold because it might go somewhere else. You want the children in that community to be able to use it.

We train the coaches to use the equipment, so that they can train and be active with the children every single day. When we go in and take a responsibility, we are there for three years with our volunteers. Over the three years, we will develop close to 200 local coaches in that area, and those coaches then become responsible.

To answer your question, it is incredibly important for us to have equipment, but one issue that we are always facing is how we can get the equipment over there. We would like to raise it and try to get it over there. We have the equipment question on one side, but we have the funding question on the other side. A cost is always associated with bringing equipment to a country. When we bring it, there are costs for customs, for transportation, for security, and all those issues. So in addition to receiving equipment, we would like to see funding.

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The other issue we're also concerned with on a big scale is where we get the equipment from, because we really believe in the third world's economic growth. We also need to help them develop distribution mechanisms to buy equipment locally and to stimulate the local economy. We actually very rarely bring equipment in. We do it now because we have partners within the manufacturing world who provide us with equipment for free, but we also make sure those products have been produced and paid for in those countries.

The Chair: Thank you, Mr. Koss.

We're very fortunate to have the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Cooperation with us today.

Madame Jennings, you have the floor.

[Translation]

Ms. Marlene Jennings (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, Lib.): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you as well to the witnesses for their presentations.

First of all, I'd like you to know that I come from a family of sports enthusiasts. My family plays all of the sports that you mentioned, with the exception of netball. My colleague talked about young people and others mentioned that some provinces have eliminated physical education or sports from the curriculum in some primary and secondary schools. That's a fact.

However, because volunteering is the Canadian way, many amateur sports program involving hockey, soccer, volleyball and basketball are thriving. You mentioned the positive effects associated with these programs.

I have two questions. My colleague talked about the things we could do. Beth Phinney, who had to leave, mentioned the fact that each MP is entitled to send out four newsletters every year to his or her constituents. In my own newsletter, I include a feature on community agencies in my riding in an effort to give them a higher profile.

If we truly believe that local communities have a contribution to make, then perhaps we should appeal to them through our newsletters. That's my first point.

Secondly, you talked about programs in countries that support the sports movement. You talked about Salt Lake City, Utah, and about

[English]

inner-city programs. If you're going to be developing something in Canada, that's probably where you're going to need to go, because I'm not sure you're going to get the support of the provincial governments. As Canadians, you know pre-university education is a provincial jurisdiction. I'm not sure you're going to get the financial support for these schools to begin putting sports programs back into place. My sense is that you are going to have to go to the communities through the inner-city programs.

I know Toronto and I know Montreal, and I know some great inner-city programs reach those children who are most disadvantaged on the socio-economic front. Interestingly enough, there are also programs, for instance, through the Girl Guides. In my riding, the Girl Guides have begun a group that targets Muslim girls, who, as a result of their religion, are not allowed to participate in mixed education or mixed sports. They have developed and integrated sports into the Girl Guide program, and they have negotiated agreements with local community centres in order to be able to have access to the centres, to the gymnasiums, the pools, etc., just for these girls.

I'm going to leave it at that, but we have these householders that get sent into every single household. We can send them four times a year. How can we use those to help you?

• 1330

Mr. Johann Koss: First of all, thank you very much for helping us with that, because we would like to reach more people about the importance of our program. Any information distribution achieved in this way would be absolutely fantastic.

We would basically ask Canadians to help us with probably three things. The first is a commitment from them to understand the importance of sport and the importance of recreation and play for themselves. Second, we would like to see even more Canadian volunteers going into the field. We would like to see people coming to us to volunteer to go into the field, and we will train them and send them overseas. That would be a great thing. And the third thing is something I always have to say, but I'm always sad to say it. We will never have enough money to reach all the people in the world. We will need to fundraise. What is important for us is to get funds for our programs and to get that kind of support and commitment behind them.

So those are the three things, and if we could get the information out through your householders, that would be a fantastic achievement. We would love to do that.

The Chair: Thank you, Mr. Koss.

What we will do now is have questions from Mr. Lanctôt and Mr. Mark. We then we have a draft motion that the clerk is preparing for Serge. If it meets with the approval of the committee, hopefully we can then proceed.

[Translation]

Mr. Lanctôt.

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: Thank you.

Mr. Koss, I much preferred your answer to the comments of the parliamentary secretary. She spoke of using our newsletters to bring your programs to the attention of Canadians. As I understand it, the goal of your organization is to secure resources and funding as well as volunteers to help disadvantaged people or people in developing countries. However, we already have federal and provincial departments that are quite capable of handling such matters, even though resources may be lacking, whether it be in Quebec or in Canada.

I appreciated your answer very much because you put your funding needs into perspective. I knew that you were Norwegian, but I had no idea that you were also a Canadian citizen. Congratulations. I hope you know, however, that this country is made up of Francophones, Anglophones and allophones.

What efforts have you made to recruit Francophone athletes, trainers and volunteers in Quebec? Have you made any efforts on this front, or is your organization still too new?

[English]

Mr. Johann Koss: Actually, getting volunteers from the francophone areas of Canada, and particularly Quebec, is very important to us. There are francophones in various countries in Africa. We are not able to be in those areas without francophone coaches. As we speak, we actually have a high need for francophone coaches. We need people in Ivory Coast, Benin, and other such countries, because we know the only way to work in those communities is in French. So if you can help us to approach more francophone coaches, Mr. Lanctôt, that is an emergency need.

Actually, just yesterday, I sent a fax to Gaétan Boucher, a friend of mine who is a speed skater. I asked him to help me recruit more francophone coaches. I haven't heard back from him, but I'm hoping to hear back from him soon in order to get more francophone coaches committed to us.

[Translation]

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: Have you also been in touch with Richard Legendre, Quebec's Minister of Sport? You haven't?

[English]

Mr. Johann Koss: No, sorry.

The Chair: Mr. Koss, Monsieur Lanctôt is a very dear friend of the Minister responsible for Sport in the Province of Quebec. He's obviously volunteering to help you there, and that's terrific.

Mr. Mark.

Mr. Inky Mark: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In your work in African countries and other developing nations, I'd like to know the relationship you have with and the support you receive from the countries' governments and Olympians as well. Obviously, they're involved in the Olympic movement, because most countries of the world are.

• 1335

Mr. Johann Koss: I appreciate that question, because it's actually a very important question.

We work with the Olympic heroes of each country within their respective countries. Doing that is extremely important.

I will tell you a story, if I have two minutes. Haile Gebreselassie is the biggest hero in Africa. He's an Ethiopian runner and two-time gold medalist. He won the half-marathon in world-record time just a few weeks ago. When he returned from Sydney last year, more than a million people were waiting for him in the streets of Addis Ababa in order to greet him and congratulate him on his gold medal in Australia. He's one of our biggest supporters, and he will spearhead our vaccination and HIV prevention program in Ethiopia. We couldn't have a better role model to say anything about that. Everybody listens to what he says. So the answer is, yes, we use local heroes.

When it comes to the governments, we are working through the governments. I will use Ghana as an example. We're working through the Ghanaian Ministry of Health and Ministry of Youth and Sports in order to be able to implement some parts of our program. Funding-wise, we're not receiving any funds from the Ghanaian government, but it is helping with physical infrastructure activities and things within Ghana. We want to encourage and increase that partnership, because Ghana will be the first country in which we actually do that from this aspect. It's something we want to continue to do much more, particularly in the sport and health program.

The Chair: Madam Parliamentary Secretary, you had a short intervention.

[Translation]

Ms. Marlene Jennings: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

My colleague Ms. Phinney, the fair-haired women who was seated at the end of the table, spoke to you about cuts to education here in Canada. She focused in particular on Ontario. You replied that you were aware of the situation and that you were trying to achieve your objectives through inner-city programs. You spoke about a pilot project in schools in the State of Utah and in a second state. I believe I have the facts straight.

One component of your program involves raising the profile of sport and educational programs and increasing public awareness of this fact in partner countries such as the United States and Canada. Then I did understand your comments. After listening to my colleague, I thought that perhaps I had misunderstood you.

[English]

The Chair: It'll have to be a short answer. We're running out of time.

Mr. Johann Koss: I think we are all agreed about the interlinkages here. What the education program really does is what we see. We want to increase the physical activity undertaken by children, but we also want to teach children about the disadvantaged children in other countries. We want to create empathy for and an understanding of that. That is very important within Canada, and it will increase awareness about our organization as well.

As you know, the provincial government has educational control in this country. The biggest cuts have been to sport and recreation. I'm an athlete living in Canada. I feel this is incredibly wrong in terms of priorities. I can now say that, and I will say that. I cannot see how they don't see the benefits of keeping these programs intact in the communities, because they are very important.

The Chair: Ms. Augustine.

Ms. Jean Augustine (Etobicoke—Lakeshore, Lib.): Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair: Before you begin your question, I apologize, but I've forgotten the name of the organization for which you are a director, the one that meets at the United Nations in New York once a year and works with young people all over the world. What is it called?

Ms. Jean Augustine: I'm involved in two United Nations organizations. One is the Inter-American Parliamentary Group on Population and Development, and the other is Parliamentarians for Global Action, a group that again is very much interested in this work.

• 1340

Mr. Chairman, the very first time I met Johann, I walked into this huge auditorium filled with Eritrean Canadians. It was really buzzing and alive. I walked in, and this white man was sitting in the front row, among all these Eritrean Canadians, and he was almost treated like a god. I had no idea who this man was. Granted, I've sat beside famous athletes before and didn't know who they were, but then I found out why these Eritrean Canadians thought so highly of Mr. Koss's work and the work his organization is doing in Eritrea.

Could we use the community organizations, if we can somehow get to the Nigerian groups and the Ghanaian groups? Not forgetting that I'm from the Caribbean, I also always put the Caribbean on top of the list. But many of those organizations are looking for niches and looking for things they could be involved in.

We're very concerned about the young people in our midst. A lot of them are very much into basketball, into soccer, and into so many things. If we're talking about training the trainers and getting some coaches and getting some other things, there should be a way in which we could harness some of that energy through the community organizations, and have them involved. I'm sure young blacks walking the streets of Toronto, given an opportunity to coach, would give some of their time and would go with the you to some part of Africa.

Mr. Chairman, whatever develops, I would like to be able to help, either to get entry into some of those community organizations, or to call some kind of a community meeting that Olympic Aid could come to, to talk about the project and get some people connected.

The Chair: Very good, Jean. We will pursue that.

Did you want to respond?

Ms. Anne Peel: I just want to thank you very much for your offer. It's fantastic. In Toronto, we have just begun initiating first steps toward working both in Lawrence Heights and in Flemingdon Park. With respect to those projects, we've connected with the South African Social Development Council, but those are just the very first baby steps. I'll therefore be calling on you in terms of your offer to help to leverage. That would be terrific. Thank you.

The Chair: Before we go to Serge and his proposed motion, did you have a short question, Mr. Lanctôt?

[Translation]

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: I need to have something explained to me. Mr. Koss, you stated that Quebec wields considerable influence within Canada. However, jurisdictions cannot be ignored. I liked your first response better than the second.

Here in Canada and in Quebec, education is solely a provincial matter. When you talk about looking beyond this country's borders, I fully support your efforts. That's the part of your comments I enjoyed the most. However, the second time around, you stated that Quebeckers need to be educated. That's where I disagree with your program.

If you want a program like this to gain acceptance in Quebec, I hope that... You said that you had yet to meet with the Minister of Education or with the Minister of Sport for Quebec. You're no longer talking just about sports. Now education is on the table as well. We're no longer talking about an area of shared jurisdiction. Education is the exclusive domain of the provinces. Therefore, before I can accept a proposal like yours, you need to meet with these Quebec ministers.

[English]

The Chair: Please give a very short answer, Mr. Koss, because I'm very excited about the possibility of getting a resolution passed today.

Mr. Johann Koss: I want to thank you for the invitation. I will go to get it through the Ministry of Leisure and Sport in Quebec. Understand that what we're doing—

[Translation]

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: The point is, there is another important component to this program that I was unaware of.

Mr. Johann Koss: I understand.

[English]

I just want to say that we will never do anything without being in partnership with the already existing organizations, because it's not possible. What we're doing is done in partnership with very strong people who are already implementing similar programs.

The Chair: Thank you, Mr. Koss.

Serge, do you have...

[Translation]

Mr. Serge Marcil: Mr. Chairman, I understood clearly very early on in your presentation that our involvement would consist of lending support to Olympic Aid efforts to aid sport in developing nations, the objective being to breathe new life into these nations. With this in mind, I would like to move a motion. I fully realize that each government has its respective jurisdictions where education and sport are concerned.

• 1345

I'm sure you've noticed that the Bloc Québécois and the Liberal Party of Canada have a special relationship. Even though we are both from Quebec, we hold different views.

My resolution would read as follows:

That the Sub-committee on the Study of Sport in Canada of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage support the organization Olympic Aid in its mission and in the achievement of its objectives, and recommend to the Secretary of State for Amateur Sport that the necessary approaches be made to various federal department to obtain from them their share of concrete and positive action in support of Olympic Aid.

The resolution is general as well as specific. We are not requesting any kind of funding from the Secretary of State for Amateur Sport. Several departments are involved in this, notably Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Is the resolution clearly worded?

[English]

The Chair: We may not get this resolution through today, but we will try.

I think it's very important to have those departments with international responsibility involved in the resolution, such as CIDA. In other words, the lead on this would not be Heritage, the lead on this would really be Madame Minna, in International Cooperation. I think she should be the lead person in this particular resolution if we're going to have the maximum impact, because the primary responsibility of our Secretary of State for Amateur Sport is the execution and delivery of sport in Canada, whereas Olympic Aid is more of an international function.

I defer to the parliamentary secretary.

Mrs. Marlene Jennings: You're right, and it should include Foreign Affairs, because they also have an aspect in CIDA. But from what Mr. Koss and Ms. Peel talked about in terms of the Canadian program and not the international side of it, there is also a volet canadien. It's possible the Secretary of State for Amateur Sport and the Minister of Canadian Heritage might have a role in that.

The Chair: Yes, they would have a role. I'm just saying not to exclude the others from the resolution.

Mrs. Marlene Jennings: No, of course not.

The Chair: Include them as part of the package.

Mrs. Marlene Jennings: We should put the appropriate government departments—

The Chair: I would also include Indian Affairs and Northern Development, because the reality is that as members of Parliament, we have a very serious challenge in helping our young first peoples in terms of their access to sport. We've talked primarily about young people outside of Canada today, but the reality is that we have many young children on our reserves across Canada who need special attention in the whole realm of sport, as Ms. Peel so appropriately mentioned in a couple of her responses.

We only have a few minutes left, but is it possible that we could amend the motion?

[Editor's Note: Inaudible]

Mr. Serge Marcil: —

The Chair: Yes, okay.

By the way, while we're waiting, I have to say that, as someone who has worked around the Hill for a long time, I find the committee meeting that we've had today—at which we've been talking about peace and children and rebuilding young people in a holistic way—is appropriate in light of the fact that, as we sit here, bombs are being dropped in many places around the world where kids are more focused on guns than they are on sport.

• 1350

If we can give Olympic Aid a real blast of energy coming out of Canada, I think we will be serving our nation's proud history as a country that has really led the way in terms of peacekeeping and fostering peace. So I hope we can get this resolution through the committee today. It would be a rare achievement.

[Translation]

The Chair: Do you have another question, Mr. Lanctôt?

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: Yes, because I hope we leave here with a unanimous resolution.

I like the way Mr. Marcil's resolution is worded, but under the circumstances and to ensure unanimity on this matter, I would recommend that the following be added at the end: “while respecting provincial areas of jurisdiction”. If these words are added, the resolution will be passed unanimously.

The Chair: This committee has always been respectful of the regions and provinces. I don't see any problem.

Mr. Marcil.

Mr. Marcil: One more thing, Mr. Chairman. The resolution should specifically mention CIDA, Foreign Affairs and Heritage Canada, because it targets...

[English]

The Chair: Yes, and Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

[Translation]

Mr. Serge Marcil: Yes. Secondly, I don't have a problem with adding the words “while respecting provincial areas of jurisdiction”.

[English]

The Chair: Okay.

Ms. Hélène Scherrer: Could we discuss just one minor thing that—

The Chair: Sure, go ahead.

Ms. Hélène Scherrer: —Ms. Peel just said about

[Translation]

concrete action?

[English]

She was just asking if it would—

[Translation]

Mr. Serge Marcil: I'll change that.

Ms. Hélène Scherrer: You will? Fine then.

[English]

It was maybe just not concrete enough and—

[Translation]

What do you propose to put instead?

Mr. Serge Marcil: I will specify...

[English]

The Chair: Could you re-read it, Serge?

Mr. Serge Marcil: Yes.

The Chair: Slowly.

Mr. Serge Marcil: Give me just a minute.

The Chair: Not too many committees could possibly get a unanimous resolution an hour and a half after starting. This will put a little blast into the executive of this government.

Ms. Jean Augustine: That's what you get when...

[Editor's Note: Inaudible]

...resolution.

The Chair: Never, Jean. We would never do a thing like that.

While we're waiting, Ms. Peel and Mr. Koss, I just want to say how much we appreciate the tremendous work you have done. We just wish you Godspeed, and we'll try to make sure we get you the support you need.

Ms. Anne Peel: Thank you very much for your support.

Ms. Hélène Scherrer: Can I say something, Mr. Chairman?

The Chair: Sure, go ahead, Hélène.

[Translation]

Ms. Hélène Scherrer: If I understood you correctly, your greatest challenge is to get communities, through sport, to take it upon themselves to reach out to young persons and to convey all kind of messages.

Indeed, the message you are trying to get across is that sport is often an apolitical and non commercial endeavour. It is very easy for people to identify with sport, an absolutely essential pursuit. Your greatest challenge will be to get other countries like us to understand that sport is not a luxury, but a way of life, a philosophy and a new way of seeing the world. That is not necessarily how Canadians see things because they still view sport as a luxury of sorts. We participate in sports activities when all of our basic needs have been satisfied whereas you establish a link between sport and basic needs such as food and health care. Again, your biggest challenge will be to get your message across to politicians and to have them understand that sport must be part of people's lives, regardless of their origins or political beliefs, regardless of whether they are poor or rich. The challenge of wealthy nations is to convey the message that sport is not the Olympic Games, but everyday physical pursuits.

[English]

The Chair: Okay, what we will do...

[Translation]

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: I find rather unfortunate this attempt to politicize an otherwise apolitical organization. You'll lose a great deal of money trying...

The Chair: She was not making a political statement, Mr. Lanctôt.

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: We can help people in countries other than Norway, Canada and the United States.

The Chair: I understand that...

Mr. Robert Lanctôt: However, the organization lacks resources and now we're asking it to promote some of its activities here at home. I don't think it will have the resources to do that.

• 1355

[English]

The Chair: Robert, listen, I listened very carefully to what Hélène said, and I never sensed anything partisan in what she said. As the chair, I have to be very... I'm an objective chair. I've always had that reputation, and I never heard her say anything partisan. I wouldn't permit it.

[Translation]

Ms. Hélène Scherrer: On the contrary.

[English]

The Chair: Now, how are you doing, Serge?

Ms. Hélène Scherrer: He's done.

Mr. Serge Marcil: Good. I'm ready.

The Chair: Just so you know what we will do, I'll give you our strategy for this resolution, which I sense will have unanimity. We will create a Standing Order 31, and we'll try to get it on the floor of the House of Commons tomorrow. That way, the officials of all those departments will have to get to work right away and deal with this file.

Do you support that, Jean? Do you think that's a good idea?

Ms. Jean Augustine: It's a very good idea.

The Chair: Could you use your influence with the government whip to get a Standing Order 31 for this?

Ms. Jean Augustine: I will do what I can.

[Translation]

The Chair: Read it slowly.

Mr. Serge Marcil: Marlene can translate it later.

That the Sub-committee on the Study of Sport in Canada of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage support the organization Olympic Aid in its mission and in the achievement of its objectives, and recommend to the Secretary of State for Amateur Sport that the necessary approaches be made to such federal departments as Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, Canadian Heritage and Indian and Northern Affairs to obtain from them their share of concrete and positive action in support of Olympic Aid, while respecting provincial areas of jurisdiction.

Ms. Hélène Scherrer: We've limited this to several departments.

[English]

Should it be open to other departments?

[Translation]

Ms. Marlene Jennings: We say “to such federal departments as”.

Mr. Serge Marcil: This is not exclusive. You could also have used “notably to”. We found that out with Meech.

[English]

Mrs. Marlene Jennings: In English, it would read:

That the Sub-committee on the Study of Sport in Canada of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage support the organization Olympic Aid in its mission and in the achievement of its objectives, and recommend to the Secretary of State for Amateur Sport that the necessary approaches be made to such federal departments as Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, Canadian Heritage and Indian and Northern Affairs to obtain from them their share of concrete and positive action in support of Olympic Aid, while respecting provincial areas of jurisdiction.

The Chair: I would add Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

Mrs. Marlene Jennings: Okay.

The Chair: It's very important to have Indian Affairs and Northern Development mentioned. That department must do more with regard to sport.

Do we have unanimity on this? Does everybody feel comfortable with it?

(Motion agreed to)

The Chair: Listen, you've all pulled off quite a rare achievement here. All that leaves is for me to say that this meeting is adjourned.