This past Spring MCA posted an invitation for our general membership to provide feedback on the Canadian Sport Policy with respect to what you felt was important for Government and Sports Partners to focus on to improve sport in Canada over the next ten years.
“Sport in Canada” is now approaching the final stages of developing a second-ten year Canadian Sport Policy for implementation as of April, 2012. The vision embraced by the Policy will lay the foundation upon which governments as well as the various partners in sport at the national, provincial and community levels will focus their efforts on.
Another major component seeking a broader level of input was an online survey which was ‘open the public’ including both “organizations” as well as “individual Canadians”.
Following are results from this process to which Manitobans contributed in a large manner.
http://www.sirc.ca/csprenewal/documents/reports/MB_Org.pdf
http://www.sirc.ca/csprenewal/documents/reports/MB_Ind.pdf
Of interest within individual Manitobans’ responses are a number of items including:
• The top “Reasons for Participating in Sport” are for individuals’ health, fun and learning; as well as for community building and social development (Pages 4-5)
• The main “Challenges/Barriers to Participating in Sport” are time, cost and access to facilities.(Pages 5-7)
• What individual Manitobans see as “Sport’s Greatest Contribution to Canadian Society over the Next Ten Years” include: population health, social development and community building (Pages 21-22)
• The changes to/impact on sport or community related to Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) or LTAD are on Pages 27 to 37, which 133 Manitobans have seen. Note: o 82% have heard of CS4L/LTAD o 41% have seen an impact in the training of coaches and volunteers
• 132 responses on “The future impact of CS4L implementation” on Pages 37 to 43
• 219 responses to the “Barriers to Successful CS4L Implementation” of which 63% indicate “uniformed parents” and 45% indicate the need for “training of coaches and volunteers”
• 215 responses to the “Top Five Priorities for the Sport Development System” include: coaches (94%), facilities (86%), school sport system ((69%), officials (67%) and organizational capacity (52%) In all a total of 111 Manitobans provided their feedback to the Manitoba-only question.. “What are the Benefits of Developing a common Community Sport for Life Plan that could be Shared Between Local Sport Organizations/Clubs, School and Municipal Recreation Departments” on Pages 52 to 58.
A combined discussion paper is being developed which will be shared with a representative cross-section of the national/ provincial and community based partners in sport and other related sectors at a national forum – gathering in early November at which Manitoba will have 7 participants. It is expected that the Federal/Provincial-Territorial Ministers will collectively adopt the Policy at their Conference this spring.