Hockey Canada is the national sport governing body for hockey in Canada. The organization works in conjunction with its 13 branch associations and its 12 affiliated organizations in growing the game at all levels.
Mr. Scott Smith is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hockey Canada (paid position), while Mr. Michael Brind’Amour is the Chairman of the Hockey Canada Board of Directors (volunteer position). Hockey Canada has four offices: the head office is located in Calgary, and the other offices are located in Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal.
Hockey Canada oversees the management of hockey programming in Canada from the entry level, with its provincial branches (minor hockey), to the selection of national teams to represent Canada in international competition, including World Championships and Olympic Games. This includes sledge hockey for athletes with a disability.
Hockey Canada is Canada’s voice within the International Ice Hockey Federation, with a history of hosting major international events. Most recently, Hockey Canada hosted the World Women’s Championship in 2020 and 2021 as well as the World Junior Championships in 2021 and the 2022 event, which was cancelled after several games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Junior Championships has become one of Canada’s premier traditional events occurring over the Christmas holidays; however, due to the omicron variant of COVID-19, the 2022 event was rescheduled to August, 2022.
Hockey Canada operates regional Centres of Excellence in Calgary, Toronto, Montréal and St. John’s which serve to improve the delivery system for hockey development programs throughout Canada.
There are approximately 385,000 Canadian hockey players.
Considerations (issue)
To satisfy the conditions of the Sport Support Program, all funded National Sport Organizations must adhere to specific clauses with respect to official languages, harassment and abuse, alternate dispute resolution, concussions, and anti-doping. Sport Canada officials work with organizations to ensure compliance with these clauses. Hockey Canada is open to engaging with the department on key issues.
Following Sheldon Kennedy’s revelations in 1996 of having suffered sexual abuse by his minor-league hockey coach, Hockey Canada developed the Speak Out! program in 1997 to educate and prevent bullying, harassment and abuse in hockey across Canada. Since then, a comprehensive program of training, education and awareness of bullying, harassment and abuse has been accomplished through workshops, resource materials and branch and association initiatives.
Hockey Canada has long mandated the Respect in Sport for Parents program and the Respect in Sport Activity Leader training for coaches and others.
To meet Sport Canada requirements, Hockey Canada has engaged the services of two independent organizations to serve as their third parties to receive and manage allegations of maltreatment in hockey at the national level. One organization is the legal firm of Henein Hutchison, and the other is insurance provider Crawford Adjusters.
Hockey Canada is generally supportive of the establishment of a single independent mechanism to receive and manage allegations of maltreatment in sport but has indicated that its current insurance provider requires the use of Crawford Adjusters as its primary third party for this purpose.
Hockey Canada was a member of the Universal Code of Conduct on Maltreatment in Sport Review Committee that supervised the development of the code and the process for its implementation.
With the Gender Equity funding from Budget 2018, Hockey Canada completed projects to increase women in coaching, officiating and leadership positions by designating a lead on gender equality, diversity, and safety, and provided targeted support to women employees and board members. It also helped to deliver measures to increase participation of girls and women in sport by engaging in a consultative, needs-based program.
Hockey Canada has been a key member of the Federal/Provincial-Territorial Working Group on Concussions in Sport since the creation of the committee in 2015 and helped develop a risk assessment tool to support concussion prevention.
Financial implications
Sport Canada’s funding to Hockey Canada is aimed at grassroots development, long-term player development, Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence, the women’s national team program, coaching, and officiating, as well as national championships and international sport events. On average, Sport Canada provides approximately 7% of Hockey Canada’s overall revenue.
Reference-level funding is an amount determined through the Sport Funding and Accountability Framework assessment process to support the delivery of the national sport organization’s core operations.
Enhanced excellence funding targets current podium potential for the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games based on recommendations from Own the Podium, the organization tasked with prioritizing and determine investment strategies to support sports in achieving podium results at Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Next generation initiative funding supports the development of podium potential for future games (within approximately seven years) based on recommendations from Own the Podium. The next generation initiative funding must also be matched by the private sector.
Budget 2018 announced gender equity funding to support the target to achieve gender equity in sport at every level by 2035. Budget 2019 announced safety in sport funding to promote accessible, ethical, equitable and safe sport.
The Budget 2021 COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund and the Recovery Fund investments help support the recovery and reopening of the arts, culture and sport sectors.
In 2022-23, Sport Canada provided the following funding support to Hockey Canada:
Sport Support Program—National Sport Organization component: approved funding as of June 14th, 2022 $3,024,100 with the following breakdown:
Reference-level mainstream: $1,524,100
Reference-level athletes with a disability: $307,000
Next generation initiative Olympic women: $125,000
Next generation initiative Paralympic (mixed gender): $97,500
Hosting Program – International Single Sport Events component: $150,000 with the following breakdown:
Canada vs USA Women's Series: $50,000
World Under-17 Hockey Challenge: $50,000
World Sledge Hockey Challenge: $50,000
Chronology
On June 26, 2018, Hockey Canada disclosed to Sport Canada that it had held a golf and gala on June 19, 2018, for their national junior men’s hockey team, and that an incident involving sexual assault had allegedly taken place. The alleged assault involved members of the national junior team. Hockey Canada reported the incident to London Police.
In April 2022, a woman filed a $3.55-million civil lawsuit against Hockey Canada, the Canadian Hockey League, and eight unnamed players. In the lawsuit, the woman alleges that she was assaulted by eight Canadian Hockey League players, including some members of that year’s world junior team, after a Hockey Canada Foundation gala in London, Ontario.
On May 24, 2022, Sport Canada was informed that Hockey Canada would be issuing a statement related to the sexual assault, and steps taken by Hockey Canada.
On May 26, 2022, Hockey Canada released a statement indicating that “the person bringing the allegations forward chose not to speak with either police or with Hockey Canada’s independent investigator and chose not to identify the players involved.” Hockey Canada also shared that they had reached a settlement and would no longer be commenting on the issue.
