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Strengthening the Voice of Coaches |
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Happy New Year!
We would like to wish you the best for 2005 – a year that promises great opportunities for Canadian coaches and the Canadian Professional Coaches Association.
Coaches are stepping forward as leaders throughout Canadian sport and the CPCA is following suit, aiming to provide more value, better service, and consistent communication for our members and for career coaches in Canada.
We look forward to your involvement in our activities throughout the year!
Special thanks to Sheila Robertson and the many contributors that make Coaches Reportsuch a success. We are looking at ways to expand our distribution and to connect with more coaches through an online version in 2005. Stay tuned for more info this spring.
Parliament Hill Meetings, December 2004
Dave Johnson (Swimming Coach and CPCA President), Ken Dool (Sailing Coach and CPCA Vice-President), Isabelle Taillon (Synchro Coach and CPCA Member), and I took up the task of meeting with key political leaders and government officials this past December, including:
- Mr. Marc Lemay(Sport Critic for the Bloc Québécois) clearly understands the central role of the coach in any
- sport program that wants to reach its goals. Mr. Lemay has been active on the Hill in Ottawa this year, encouraging a non-partisan approach to advancing the high performance goals for Canadian sport and highlighting the progressive steps that have already been established in Quebec. Mr. Lemay referenced our meeting and policy paper in his
- questions to the Minister of State for Sport at the Heritage Committee meetings the following week a good sign
- that our message is taking root.
- Mr. Paul DeVillers(Former Minister of State for Sport and Chair of the All Party Sport Caucus, Liberal Party) joined us for dinner and provided useful feedback on how to influence the minority government. Mr. DeVillers has always opined that “constructive noise” from the sport sector is essential to advancing our agenda and was encouraged that coaches are becoming active in this manner.
- Mr. Peter Stoffer(Sport Critic for the New Democratic Party) agreed to draft a letter to the Minister of State for
- Sport in support of our policy paper. Mr. Stoffer went further and sought our counsel during the Heritage Committee meeting to frame his questions. He spoke directly in support of our position that 10% of the Sport Canada budget should be designated for investment in direct support to coach salaries, which is equivalent to $18 million of the
- $180 million annual budget for Sport Canada which the Sport Matters Group has proposed.
- Mr. John Reynolds(House Leader and Sport Critic for the Conservative Party) has a personal connection to sport – two sons active in high performance sport which he credits to the influence of their high school football coach.
- Without prompting, Mr. Reynolds restated the Conservative position that more money (1% of the Health Budget,
- approximately $290m annually) should be invested in sport. He made the link between sport and health, sport and national pride, and the prospect of succeeding in his backyard in 2010. Again, Mr. Reynolds referenced our meeting during the Heritage Committee questioning of the Minister of State for Sport.
- Mr. Tom Scrimger(Director General, Sport Canada) and Mr. Roger Ouellette(Director of Sport, Sport Canada).
- Sport Canada continues to be a strong supporter of the Canadian Professional Coaches Association and the movement towards strengthening our career coach pathways and the role of the career and professional coach as leaders of our sport system. We look forward to a productive renewed partnership with Sport Canada in the coming year as we take our next steps to be an independent coaches’ organization.
- Minister of State (Sport) Stephen Owenhosted our group for an hour long discussion focused on the essential role of the career and professional coach as a leader in the Canadian sport system. We had the opportunity to present our four-point briefing document. We indicated that the current investment of less than $4.5 million was not sufficient to meet our shared goals as articulated in the Canadian Sport Policy. We also indicated that the new investments in 2004 rarely resulted in an increase in direct support to coaches. We agreed that systemic changes will be required to ensure that new investments achieve the stated goal of supporting coach salaries.
- To initiate joint-policy development efforts with coaches, through the CPCA, that correlates sport participant and volunteer ratios to paid coach-leader positions so as to increase the quality of and access to safe, fun, and valuable experiences in sport and community life for all.
- To implement the Canadian Sport Policy, Own the Podium Plans, Sport Matters Group recommendations and Sport Review Panel and to invest ($180 million on an annual basis) in the sport community’s collective readiness to work together towards shared goals.
- To remove the barriers to multi-year funding of coaches and minimum coach salary thresholds through multi-year agreements with sport federations at the national level and Sport Canada policy changes.
- To establish an annual program of the Government of Canada with $18 million in designated funds for coach salaries by 2006.
The Minister is extremely approachable, well briefed on the important role that the CPCA is playing in our system,
and prepared to work with us to advance our high performance goals in the short term and the development goals over the longer term.
Coaches Network
The Coaches Networkis making a difference for career coaches in Canada.
- Stay currenton CPCA activities
- Connectonline with your coaching peers
- Take actionas a leader in your sport or your community
- Strengthen sport by contributingto CPCA initiatives
- Sign onby sending your e-mail to cpca@coach.ca
Coaches Forum 2005
November 9–11, 2005 in Quebec City
- Coach-to-coach professional development workshops
- Public leadershipand communication training
- Networkwith Canada’s best coaches
- Help to shape your new professional association
- Stay on for the Sport Leadership sportif conference
Financial assistance may be available through your National Sport Federation and the Canadian Professional Coaches Association. Coaches Forum 2005 is supported by Sport Canada. For more information, send an e-mail to cpca@coach.ca
The Canadian Professional Coaches Association is a national non-profit organization that provides services to career coaches, applies research to public policy initiatives, and connects Canada’s community of coaches through active communications. As coaches are public leaders in Canadian sport and society, the CPCAstrives to develop, to protect and to promote the leadership abilities of coaches and the public interest through a code of ethics, self-regulation, professional development programs, mentorship and public engagement initiatives.
For more information, please contact:
Ian Bird
Executive Director, CPCA
ibird@coach.ca
(613) 235-5000, Ext. 9-2385 / Direct: (613) 447-2488
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COACHES OF CANADA
