Key Policy Issues

SMG has been heavily involved in the Canadian Sport Policy Renewal consultation process, which encourages interested Canadians and sport communities to contribute and to help build a sport policy that reflects the sport and organized recreational opportunities they want in Canada. The vision embraced by the policy will lay the foundation upon which efforts will be focused over the next ten years to improve sport in Canada. To learn more about the CSP 2.0 and the renewal process, click here or contact us.

SMG has participated in all of the consultation roundtables, contributing energy and ideas, and actively listening to members of the sport and other related sectors to learn about their views on the direction of the new policy.

The CSP 2.0 was publicly released in June 2012. The policy can be accessed on the Sport Information Resource Centre's website by clicking here.

SMG has filed its 2012 pre-budget submission with the Standing Committee on Finance and plans on making a presentation during the consultation hearings later this Fall. You can find the document here. Our submission was the product of collaboration with PHE Canada, Own the Podium, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and the Canadian Olympic Committee and sought the following: (1) the creation of Canadian Sport Institutes; (2) the establishment of National Child Fitness Literacy Awards; and (3) making the Child Fitness Tax Credit fully refundable for low-income families.

The statistics show that Canada is on the verge of an obesity epidemic for which our healthcare system is unprepared. SMG believes that sport and physical activity have a role to play in reversing this trend, thereby improving the health of Canadians and reducing the burden on our strained healthcare system.  In contrast to the ever escalating cost of furnishing crisis care and long term illness treatment, sport and physical activity have the advantage of being relatively inexpensive forms of prevention.

Check out an Op-Ed published by Chris Jones, former Senior Leader of SMG, in the January 21, 2012 edition of the Toronto Star entitled "Prevention left out of the health-care debate".

During the 2011 federal election campaign, SMG urged all federal parties to speak more about how they planned to support and develop sport and physical activity in Canada. You'll find the site and resources here. Four key messages were communicated by SMG:

(1) Invest in sport and physical activity;

(2) Strengthen communities;

(3) Support and celebrate Canada’s champions; and

(4) Build sport, physical activity and recreation into every community.

We’d like to thank all those who made a real impact by getting the word out to their sport and physical activity networks and their local candidates. The task in the weeks and months ahead will be to continue to mobilize our sector and to advocate for a greater focus by public policy decision makers on sport and physical activity files.