Tuesday, October 6, 2026

The committee met at 1000 in committee room 1.

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

Good morning, everyone. The Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy will now come to order. We are meeting to consider the 2026-27 estimates of sport, for a total of two hours. We are joined today by staff from Hansard, broadcast and recording, and legislative research. From the ministry, we are joined by the Honourable Brian Saunderson, Minister of Sport, and Keith Palmer, deputy minister, along with other staff from the ministry. As a reminder, the ministry is required to monitor the proceedings for any questions or issues that the ministry undertakes to address. I trust that the deputy minister has arranged to have the hearings closely monitored with respect to questions raised, so that the ministry can respond accordingly. Are there any questions from the members before we start? Seeing none, I am now required to call vote 5301, which sets the review process in motion. We will begin with a statement from the minister for up to 20 minutes. Minister, welcome again. The floor is all yours when you’re ready to begin.

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

It’s an honour to be here today. It’s a little different because, for the past four years, I’ve been a member of this committee, so I know what comes from the other side of the table. Thank you for the work each and every one of you do. It’s wonderful to be joined here by my team: Deputy Minister Palmer and the team over at the Ministry of Sport. It’s kind of a dream role for me, actually, given where I started in my past. I also want to give a shout-out to my predecessor, Minister Lumsden, for all the work that he did in this portfolio for the past four years. Our plan is to pick up and continue with that work as we move forward. The Ministry of Sport is doing significant work to strengthen the sport and recreation sector in Ontario. We’re working to provide a safe sporting environment for the people of Ontario while enhancing their quality of life by fostering healthy, active communities and driving economic growth. Promoting active living and supporting athlete development for Ontarians directly supports the priorities of this government, including those set out in the 2026 Ontario budget, A Plan to Protect Ontario. Our ministry recognizes the importance of developing sustainable sport and recreation policies, supporting athletic development, funding grassroots community programs, building critical infrastructure, and driving economic growth by attracting sporting events to communities across this great province. Sport has a wide-ranging impact on all our residents across the province. From our student athletes who compete locally with neighbouring schools to parents who travel across the province with their children for tournaments—or for tournaments of their own—to the shops and restaurants that fill up during sporting events, nurturing this sector stimulates growth across the entire province in many, many ways. Sport plays a vital role in the health and well-being of our Ontario residents. From soccer pitches to basketball courts, from ice rinks to baseball diamonds and from pools to rowing courses, Ontarians are finding ways to stay active and healthy. In many ways, sport imitates life. It strengthens the fabric of our communities and brings families together. It teaches our youth valuable life lessons and creates opportunities for people to excel and succeed. Beyond its social impact, sport is also a powerful economic engine for our province. Ontario’s sport and recreation sector contributes an estimated $3.6 billion to the economy and supports approximately 43,000 jobs annually. These numbers are a testament to sport tourism and the impact it has on our economy. Through sport, visitors are experiencing everything that Ontario has to offer. Whether it’s taking in a game at the Rogers Centre or visiting Niagara region for a basketball tournament or competing to be a national lacrosse champion in Ottawa, tourists are booking hotel rooms and enjoying our shops and restaurants. They are taking in local attractions and monuments. They are appreciating our culture. They are meeting our people. Our government recognizes how important this sector is to the well-being and economic success of the province. That’s why we are investing in infrastructure to ensure communities have the spaces they need to keep people active and healthy, while continuing to attract world-class events to Ontario. In 2024, this government created the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund, backed by an initial $200-million investment. This investment supports municipalities, non-profit organizations and Indigenous communities with building new sports and recreation infrastructure and revitalizing existing facilities. Just a few months ago, our government announced an additional $300 million to expand this program, to the provincial total of half a billion dollars—$500 million—over four years, making this the largest single investment in sport and recreation infrastructure in Ontario’s history. These are the types of commitments that Ontarians need. Our investments will support local community projects; create good-paying jobs; promote active, healthy living; and give the next generation of Ontarian athletes a place to train and grow their skills. Last year, we announced investments in 94 projects from the initial $200-million investment. This includes: —a $19.5-million investment to help the city of Cambridge build a 112,000-square-foot recreational complex; —more than $15.7 million to support the construction of a new recreation centre for Mouvement d’implication francophone d’Orléans, a not-for-profit francophone artistic, cultural and community organization in Ottawa; and —more than $9 million in Wauzhushk Onigum Nation to support the development of a modern, multi-purpose recreation complex featuring a regulation-size ice surface, running track, fitness facilities, community gathering spaces and an elders’ lounge. Yesterday, I was in Mr. Bresee’s riding for the opening of the W.J. Henderson facility in his riding, which has been there for many years but now has a new ice surface and a brand new pool, which have given a great new life to an existing facility in a very growing community. These investments are providing spaces for people to be active and participate in sport and recreation, in safe and welcoming facilities. Bricks and mortar are a key part of our metric, but funding critical programs on the ground for residents of Ontario, particularly our youth, is a huge priority for this government. So beyond bricks and mortar, we are investing in the next generation of Ontarians. I’m proud to highlight the continued investment and impact of Ontario’s After-School Program, a vital initiative that supports the development of children across the province. This program reaches more than 13,000 children and youth from kindergarten to grade 12 in 80 communities across the province. It’s delivered by 108 organizations, including municipalities, First Nations and community-based non-profits. The program provides safe, supervised activities during critical after-school hours, when many parents are still at work. We are in the second year of a three-year continued investment of $43.9 million. This multi-year funding model provides stability for our program partners; reduces administrative burden; and allows organizations to plan long-term and deliver consistent, high-quality programs to the youth across the province. It provides children and youth with a foundation to build healthy habits, learn physical literacy and be active, giving the next generation the tools to thrive and prosper. It’s also supporting the hard-working parents of this province by ensuring their kids have access to fun, safe, supervised activities, along with a nutritious snack, after school. Through this program, we are laying the groundwork for a healthier Ontario. Our government is proud to invest in programs that make a real difference in the lives of families across the province. By investing in this program, we are helping young people gain confidence, stay active and develop the skills they need to succeed inside and outside the classroom. In addition to the opportunities being created by investing in infrastructure, we’re also proud to support organizations with delivering affordable, accessible and inclusive programming. Since our government launched the inclusive grassroots recreation program in 2021-22, we have supported approximately 150,000 children from under-represented and marginalized populations with participating in sport and recreation. That includes children from our Indigenous communities, newcomers and youth with disabilities. In 2025-26, our ministry invested $3.2 million through this program to support several organizations with creating more opportunities for kids to participate in sport and recreation. This includes investments in Canadian Tire Jumpstart charities, to help more than 37,000 children and youth across Ontario participate in sport and recreation programs; the Jays Care Foundation, to continue supporting baseball programs for children with disabilities, and Indigenous youth—when I was up in Kenora three years ago for the opening of the justice centre, we visited one of the Indigenous bands up there and got a tour of their ball diamond, which was facilitated through the Jays Care Foundation—Canadian Women and Sport, to create more opportunities to keep girls and young women active and engaged in sport; and KidSport Ontario, to help children participate in organized sport by assisting with registration fees and equipment costs. Every child deserves an opportunity to experience the many benefits of participating in sport and recreation. That’s why we are also continuing to support Indigenous sport and recreation programming, with more than $5.2 million invested annually in the Community Aboriginal Recreation Activator Program, youth cultural camps, and the Sport Pathway for Ontario Native Wellness. Since 2018, investments in these programs have supported over 178,000 participants in communities across Ontario. It is crucial to build a sport system where cost, geography, ability or background are not barriers to participation. Through these targeted grassroots investments, we are breaking down barriers, strengthening communities, and ensuring that everyone has access to sport and recreation. This is part of our overall program that looks at encouraging our youth and supporting our youth, from the playground to the podium. We are also helping to fund programs and services that support the development of athletes, coaches and officials across Ontario. Our Ontario Amateur Sport Fund provides more than $8 million annually to 68 provincial and multi-sport organizations, supporting over four million amateur athletes, coaches and officials, and building pathways to national and international competition. With this support, our PSOs and MSOs are in a better position to strengthen athlete programming, identify clear athlete performance targets, and develop a stronger talent identification system. I’m proud to say that more than half of the team that represented Canada at the FIFA World Cup 2026 were from Ontario. It has been a busy year in Ontario. The World Cup was a huge boon both in Ontario and BC. And I would say that the city of Toronto had an action-packed summer. We welcomed visitors from across the globe. I’m proud of our province’s contribution to the successful planning and delivery of this historic event. Toronto hosted matches between June 12 and July 2, creating a memorable experience for visitors and locals alike. This event was forecasted to create more than 8,700 jobs and an estimated economic impact of $1.3 billion for the province. Our government invested $97 million in funding and provincial services to support Toronto’s role as a host city. This investment generated a strong return through sport tourism and delivered lasting economic benefits that will be felt for years to come. One legacy of this investment is the new, permanent, state-of-the-art pitch and field house at Centennial Park in Toronto. This was used as a practice facility for visiting teams, and it now will serve the local community for generations to come. But the benefits of hosting extend far beyond facilities like this. A recent study released by Destination Ontario found that more than nine in 10 visitors to the FIFA World Cup 2026 said they are likely to return to Ontario for a leisure trip within the next two years, while a whopping 96% said they would return for another large international event in the future. The eyes of the world were on us, and we showed them why Ontario is where the world comes to compete. The World Cup created lifelong memories for soccer fans, young and old, who witnessed Canada reach the knockout round of 16 for the first time ever.

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

It was a celebration of our country, our communities and our athletes, and an opportunity for Ontario to showcase its leadership, diversity and thriving sport culture in one of the world’s most dynamic and welcoming cities. That’s one example of the benefits of sport hosting. The World Cup gave us a chance to see the impact on a global scale. But we in Ontario have been building our sport hosting sector for years. Through the Ontario Sport Hosting Program, we’re helping communities across the province attract and host major sporting events that bring visitors, create local economic activity, groom the athletes of the future, and leave a lasting legacy, which is an important part of our government’s plan to protect Ontario’s economy. As we look at the geopolitical events and what’s going on south of the border, our economy is what drives our programs. This program provides project-based funding to support the delivery of national and international amateur sport events across the province. With an annual investment of $3 million, this program has supported over 300 events since 2018, generating approximately $278 million in economic activity for Ontario. From the Volleyball Canada youth and senior Beach Nationals in Toronto to the Canada Cup of Diving in Windsor or the under-18 curling championships in Timmins, we’re helping Ontario communities unlock the benefits of sport tourism. Most recently, through the first intake period of the 2026-27 program year, we invested more than $1.3 million to support 26 amateur events, including national and international competitions, with additional investments still to be made through the program’s second intake period. These events alone are expected to generate approximately $28 million in economic activity across Ontario. This program also gives Ontario athletes the important opportunity to gain the elite competition experience needed to excel on the world stage right here at home. We want our athletes to succeed, and through the sport hosting program, we’re helping make that happen. We’re not just investing in amateur sport events. Our government also invested $1.5 million each to support the 2026 Ontario Honda Dealers Indy and the 2026 RBC Canadian Open, and $500,000 for the 2026 National Bank Open. Together, these events were projected to attract nearly 500,000 people and generate $225 million for our economy. These investments build on our government’s work to help communities unlock the economic benefits of sport tourism through high-profile events, while creating more opportunities for children, youth and families to participate in sport and recreation. One of our signature programs for these events is the Ontario Winter Games, an initiative that brings Ontario athletes together from every corner of the province, in the spirit of competition. We deliver five multi-sport games. These events provide amateur athletes with a competitive platform to develop their skills, gain experience, and prepare for national and international competitions. Investments into these games reflect our commitment to ensuring that host communities can deliver high-quality events while maximizing local economic and community benefits. The Ontario games provide valuable opportunities for their participants. For many athletes, this is their first multi-sport competition experience, and for others, it’s a stepping stone towards representing Canada on the national and international stage. Our government is proud to support events that inspire hard work and dedication, build lasting connections and help athletes push their limits and achieve personal goals. Recently, we invested nearly $1.4 million to support Orillia as the host of the 2026 Ontario Winter Games earlier this year and more than $1.7 million to support Waterloo region as the host of the 2026 Ontario Summer Games. These two major sport events showcased this province’s athletic talent and community spirit, and they were each a tremendous success. Next summer, the city of Brockville is hosting the 2027 Ontario 55+ Summer Games, from August 17 to 19. And the city of Brantford will be hosting the 2027 Ontario ParaSport Games, from February 19 to 21. I encourage you all to come out and watch those events. Collingwood had the privilege of hosting the 2012 winter games, which was my window into that event, and it was a massive success. Through these games, we’re investing in the future of sport and once again reinforcing Ontario’s reputation as a premier destination for sport hosting. We support our developing athletes through a number of initiatives. We’re proud of the high-calibre talent coming out of Ontario. We continue to support the next generation of athletes through the Quest for Gold program. This program provides direct financial assistance to Ontario athletes, helping them compete at the highest national and international levels. Through the Ontario Card stream, we invest $3.2 million annually in eligible provincial sport organizations. This funding enables organizations to provide direct support to top-ranked provincial athletes, to deliver high-performance programs that enhance training and development, or a combination of both. Through the Canada Card stream, we invest $3.1 million annually to support more than 500 athletes across 65 sports as they pursue opportunities to represent Ontario and Canada on the national and international stage. Ontario athletes made up almost half of Team Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics; that was an increase of approximately 15% from the 2004 Olympic Games. And of those athletes, 91% received Quest for Gold funding at some point in their athletic journey. This support helps keep Ontario’s high-performance sport pipeline strong. But more importantly, it helps to develop the athletes across this province. Our government remains committed to developing the next generation of Ontario athletes and helping them achieve success at the highest levels of competition. While programs like Quest for Gold help athletes achieve success on the field of play, our commitment also extends to safeguarding their well-being and their health. We are doing important work to ensure sport remains safe, welcoming and inclusive for everyone. Protecting the safety and well-being of all involved in sport is a key priority for our government. Abuse, harassment and discrimination have no place in Ontario’s sport system, and our government is working to foster a culture of safety, respect and integrity. Ontario continues to advance its commitment to safe sport through a multi-faceted approach that includes policy development, education, prevention and accountability. We’re working closely with PSOs and MSOs to ensure that they meet mandatory standards under the Sport Recognition Policy, including the implementation and adherence to a comprehensive safe sport framework, concussion protocols and codes of conduct for athletes, parents and coaches. An accountable sports system leads with clarity, responsibility and a shared commitment to athlete safety and development. To deliver on these expectations, our government upholds and enhances Ontario’s Sport Recognition Policy, a foundational framework that ensures our sport organizations meet the highest standards of excellence and integrity. The policy sets out mandatory requirements for PSOs and MSOs to be formally recognized by the province. These organizations are responsible for developing athletes, coaches and officials in the health and safety of their athletes, as well as organizing provincial championships and ensuring alignment with national sport standards. Through this policy, we’re building a sport system that is safe, inclusive and high-performing; one that reflects Ontario’s values and supports every athlete’s potential. To support our PSOs with meeting the obligations set out under the Sport Recognition Policy, we invest $8 million annually through the Ontario Amateur Sport Fund. We will continue to work with our sport partners to uphold these standards and ensure that sport in Ontario remains a source of pride, opportunity and excellence. And when it comes to safety—

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

Sorry, Minister. I didn’t give you a warning, but—

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

How are we doing?

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

About 10 seconds. Wrap that up, would you?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

Well, it’s a pleasure to be here.

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

I was so in tune listening to you, I didn’t watch the clock there.

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

We have much to do and we look forward to doing it. I’m happy to entertain questions. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

Thank you very much for your presentation. We will now begin the question-and-answer segment—in rotations of 15 minutes for the official opposition members, 15 minutes for the third party member, 15 minutes for the government members—for the remainder of the allotted time. As always, please remember to make your comments through the Chair. As the Chair, if a member seeks to reclaim the floor during the rotation while the minister is responding, I will recognize the member and allow them to reclaim the floor to ask a new question. For the deputy minister, assistant deputy ministers and ministry staff: Please state your name and title the first time you speak so that the proceedings can be accurately recorded in Hansard. I will now start with the official opposition. MPP Glover.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

Thank you for your presentation this morning. I’m a big sports fan. I play a lot of sports, and I really appreciate especially what you were talking about with sport being from the basic community level, where people are just playing for fun to developing professional athletes here in Ontario. I’ve got a couple of quick questions, and then I’m going to get into a longer question—so if you could just respond a “yes” or “no” to these two. Would you agree that the Ministry of Sport has a responsibility to make sure that sports facilities are available in communities across Ontario?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

I would agree that we work very hard to work collaboratively with our municipal partners and our not-for-profits to make sure that they have the bricks and mortar they need. There’s a lot of demand out there, but we’re working hard.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

And would you agree that the gyms and fields in our public and Catholic schools are important sites for community sports organizations in the evenings and on weekends?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

You’re blending a little into the education sector. We work with our communities and our not-for-profit organizations. The education sector is something different. But we’re working to make sure, with our colleagues at the Ministry of Education, that there is access to those facilities, because they do play an important role in the communities.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

Part of this is my own background—I used to be a school board trustee at the TDSB, and I was the chair of the community use of schools advisory committee for eight years. At that time, we went through a process to bring the community use of schools to a cost-recovery model so that it wasn’t being subsidized by the funding that was intended for the daytime students. But this year, the government seized control of a number of different school boards, including the TDSB, and what has been happening with those school boards, with community use of schools, is that they have jacked up the rates for permits in the schools. I’ll give a couple of examples from the Toronto Star: The York district school board increased one permit from $715 last year to $5,400 this year. That’s a 652% increase. At the TDSB, the board, under this government’s supervision, increased another permit at Central Tech, which is a school not too far from us right here at the Legislature, from $3,400 to $9,800, which is a 188% increase. Would you agree that if your government is increasing fees by these drastic amounts, they are going to be discouraging community use of schools and the ability for community groups to participate in sports in our schools?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

Well, you’ve gone on to the Ministry of Education. But what I would say is we’ve seen those cost increases across not just the boards that we’ve taken over; it’s across the province generally. So I think it’s a very graphic example of the tension we see with the maintaining of these facilities and keeping these facilities operative and making sure they’re accessible to the public. We, through our CSRIF funding, have been very focused on making sure that we can assist our communities and not-for-profits with the infrastructure they need.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

One of the things that this government has claimed is that they’re increasing the fees to absorb the cost of the custodians. If you have to bring in a custodian on a weekend to open up a school, then the permit should pay for that custodian. But what has been happening at the TDSB is that each permit is charged separately, as if they’re the only permit that’s operating in the school. So if there are five permits in the school and there’s one custodian on a Saturday, each of them is being charged as if they’re the only permit, so each of them is being charged the full amount of the custodian. This is why we have these drastic increases. When I was on the TDSB, we brought our community-use-of-schools costs down to a point where it was cost recovery. Now the boards under supervision by this government are increasing these fees by astronomical amounts, claiming it to be cost recovery, but they’re actually double-dipping or triple-dipping and charging extra for the custodians.

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

I can’t speak to how they’re doing their fees. I can say, as indicated earlier, that I don’t think it’s just at the boards that have been taken over. We here at this table and in the Ministry of Sport are focused on making sure that we can make sport accessible and inclusive for all our residents through the organizations that we have control over.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

Would you be willing, as the Minister of Sport, to work with the Minister of Education to investigate these astronomical increases and to see if they are actually justified or if they can be brought down so that we’re not squeezing out community organizations that want to use our schools for sports?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

I’m always happy to have the conversations. This is a government that works collaboratively across all ministries to improve the life of Ontarians. I’m happy to have that discussion.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

Thank you. Time check, Madam Chair?

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

You’ve got 10 minutes.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

Good. How much did the ministry spend on—and I’m looking for interim actuals—provincial sports organizations in 2025-26?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

You mean our 68 member PSOs?

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

Yes.

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

I’ve got a lot of numbers swimming in my head; it’s like I prepared for them the last four weeks. What I can tell you—and I’m going to look to the deputy minister to give you more detail on that—is we have our agreements with our PSOs. Our PSOs are all linked with a national sport organization, so we work closely with them through the funding for coaches and program implementation. The Ontario sport funding is one envelope, and there’s also our Quest for Gold funding envelope. I’m going to look to the deputy minister to give you the actual numbers on all of those.

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Through you, Madam Chair: That number is $17.16 million.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

Thank you. There have been media reports about alleged fraud and improprieties with some of the leagues associated with PSO funding, including ongoing legal issues surrounding the Ontario Hockey League. Does the ministry conduct any kinds of audits with the public dollars that the PSOs received for the leagues that are funded?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

I’m not aware of the lawsuit you’re speaking of. We can certainly look into those. There is accountability in our sport agreements with each PSO. Their funding is contingent on them honouring their aspects of their agreements. In terms of the recognition policy and how that would relate to any lawsuits, I’m going to look to the deputy minister to provide details on that.

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Through our transfer payment agreements, there is a responsibility for those PSOs and MSOs to report back annually on how their funding was utilized. We review those reports. We cross-reference that with the amount of money that they’ve received, aligning that with the criteria in regard to their transfer payment responsibilities. We feel fairly confident that we’re not seeing elements of abuse in those areas.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

Are there audits performed?

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Audits are on the recommendation of officials. We will conduct those audits if we recognize there are some challenges in how those dollars are being spent. But there is a process for auditing, and we will review those auditings based off risks.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

The province chose 94 projects from its $200-million Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund—a commitment from 500 applicants. What determined what a successful application would be?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

Let me speak generally to the CSRIF model. There were two streams. One stream was up to a $1-million maximum, which would represent 50% of a project to upgrade or rehabilitate an existing facility. There was stream two, which was up to $10 million for a new recreational facility. Of the 94 projects, 77 were stream one and 17 were stream two. There were set criteria that were analyzed and evaluated by an independent body, a committee, and then recommendations were made to the ministry, and we adopted all those recommendations. I’ll look to the deputy minister to go through the dynamics of the metrics.

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Through you, Madam Chair: The assessment process for the CSRIF applications—and your number is correct: Just under 500 were processed through our partner ministries. Those assessments were then turned over to sport officials. Sport officials then reviewed that information, including scores, made recommendations to our minister’s office, who then approved those top-scoring assessments, and then dollars were attributed as such.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

How much time do I have?

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

Six minutes. And then you have another round of 15 and then another little bit.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

That’s good. I want to ask some questions about FIFA, the World Cup. The province provided $41 million in 2025-26 toward the World Cup—is that an accurate number?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

I have $97 million in total, of which $27 was in in-kind services and $70 million was in direct investments. In terms of the $41 million, I’m going to look to the deputy minister.

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

I think in regard to the $41 million, you’re probably thinking about the amount that was attributed in the year 2026-27. Some of those dollars were re-profiled into another year as a result of those funds not being shared, and that happened in a timely fashion as a result of reports coming in from the city of Toronto.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

From the three levels of government, what percentage of total funding for the World Cup came from the province?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

I don’t have an answer to that. Deputy Minister, do you know?

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Thank you, Minister. Through you, Madam Chair: There was $97 million distributed from the province of Ontario to the city of Toronto. I do believe the total bill that Toronto had shared was $380 million. I’d make the assumption that the federal government picked up somewhere around $100 million and the balance was remaining with the city of Toronto.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

So, roughly, the feds put in $100 million, the province put in $100 million, the city put in $180 million.

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Roughly.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

What was the return on investment for the FIFA investment, the $97 million?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

We have preliminary numbers. I think, in advance, the projections were that it would support 8,700 jobs and contribute over $1.3 billion in positive economic return. My understanding is that the city of Toronto is still going through their reconciliation, so those numbers are not yet released. I can tell you there were approximately 250,000 fans who visited the Toronto Stadium and more than 350,000 who attended the FIFA Fan Festival. As I indicated in my comments, of the interviews they conducted, 96% said they would come back to Ontario for another athletic event and 92% said they would come back to Ontario just generally to tour. I think the return—those have to be quantified in that as well.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

Are you doing a value-for-money assessment, after the fact, of the World Cup?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

We’re certainly looking for the finalization of the numbers. But as I said, I think there are other aspects to it. I think one thing we should be very proud of is that through our services that we provided, through multiple ministries—I think 12 ministries were involved—we really had a safe, happy event. We didn’t have any significant events, so I think that speaks very positively to Ontario and Canada, generally. I don’t know, Deputy Minister, if you have anything to add to the returns.

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Thank you, Minister. Through you, Madam Chair: I think there are two aspects of return on investment that we’re looking at, as a ministry. There’s a social return on investment as well as a financial return on investment. We recognize that as a result of supporting the FIFA World Cup tournament in Ontario, we have seen a number of our populations come together to really represent and support Team Canada for these games. We recognized how substantial of the $97-million contribution by the province—really turned into a gathering, if I can use that term. In downtown Toronto and across the province writ large, we saw a number of different populations, different cultural groups come together to celebrate the tournament, and as such, recognizing that there were no major issues—from health-related, policing, security—this was a success, overall, in partnership with the city of Toronto and the federal government.

Official source

Mr. Chris Glover

I would agree with that assessment. That’s my riding—where the fan fest, where the World Cup games took place. I’ve got to give kudos, particularly, to the city, but also all three levels of government for the managing of the World Cup. It was an incredible success, and I think it really did showcase Toronto and Ontario and Canada to the world. So kudos on that. I’ll hold the rest of my questions for the second round.

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

Thank you very much. We’re now going to the third party. MPP Cerjanec.

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

Through you, Chair: Congratulations, Minister Saunderson, on being appointed Minister of Sport. I’d just recognize the deputy minister, as well, on his upcoming retirement and length of service for the province of Ontario in supporting sport in the province. Around the FIFA World Cup, just to pick up from my colleague MPP Glover—we know it was a $97-million provincial investment into the FIFA World Cup, and my understanding is, it was estimated that about $38 million of that would go towards provincial police, paramedics, GO Transit, and staff. So, out of that $97 million, do we know how much the city of Toronto has received?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

The breakdown, as I understand it—and I’ll look to the deputy minister to confirm this. Some $27 million went to the services that you referred to, not $38 million—so $70 million was to direct investment, some was to infrastructure, and some was to other programs to assist the city. For further breakdown, I’ll look to you, Deputy.

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Thank you, Minister. That number is actually around $27 million in provincial services, which—of course, the balance then will go over to the city of Toronto. That number is actually being reconciled at the moment. Of course, it takes a little bit of time, post-event, to make sure the expenditures are accounted for. At a later date, we’ll have the precise numbers, the accurate numbers. But for now, that’s roughly around the ballpark number.

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

Thank you. I appreciate that transparency. In terms of the money allocated for the World Cup, how much of that money was allocated for salaries and operating costs within the Ministry of Sport itself? Do we have that number?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

Within our ministry?

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

Yes.

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

I don’t know that there were any additional salaries that would have been allocated in our ministry. That’s part of their job. So we certainly allocated a great deal of time. Whether we allocated salaries for any aspect of our provincial staff—I’ll look to the deputy minister.

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Thank you again, Minister. Through the total $97 million and provincial services of about $27 million, there’s about $1.5 million that was distributed to the Ministry of Sport around—staffing, the coordination, working with different levels of government, the overall planning, coordination directly across the entire tournament was counted in that $1.5 million.

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

I suspect it might be around $12 million or so. Do we anticipate—because that number did bump up—moving forward, that that number will bump back down to where spending on staff salaries was in a previous year, previous to the World Cup?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

Those numbers, I guess, are still being reconciled. But I’ll look to the deputy minister.

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Thank you, Minister. You said $12 million?

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

The total payroll for the ministry, I believe, tripled this year, from $5.9 million to $16.6 million, which I believe is directly attributed to the World Cup. Do we anticipate, then, that spending on staff salaries to go back down to the level which it was before, or is this something now that the ministry will be sustaining moving forward?

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Any dollars that were attributed to the World Cup project around salaries would not remain. Those numbers would reflect the reduction in the overall resources that are necessary to effectively operate and/or coordinate that program.

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

Thank you. I appreciate the clarity. Just around the World Cup and some of the expenses—I know we’re doing the accounting and going through that. Can we expect to receive a full accounting of where those monies were spent once, obviously, that reconciliation process is done? Is that something that we can bring back to either committee—or be announced publicly?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

I think that’s something we take into consideration. The reconciliation we’re doing with our own records and the city, I imagine, would be part of the public record, but we can look into that.

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

Thank you. I think the World Cup was a fantastic event. I had the opportunity to go to one of the games, the Croatia game, on my own dime. I can confirm that the price cap law that the province had in place wasn’t necessarily working for that. But it was a great experience, and I think there was a lot of great pride in Toronto, the GTA and Ontario as well. I understand—and this is through FIFA’s consultants—it generated $1.3 billion in economic activity. Do we agree with FIFA’s analysis of that, or have we done our own kind of value-for-money audit around it, just to ensure that we know what the economic benefits were and how much additional tax revenue, for example, the province collected? Do we know that, or do we have that?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

We had our projections prior to the games, which were 8,700 jobs and the $1.3-billion economic impact. The reconciliation is ongoing. So I think the short answer is, we don’t yet have the granular detail you’re looking for.

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

Perhaps we’ll loop back on that at a future time. In my community in Ajax, in Durham region, something I hear quite a bit about from community groups, from community organizations is that there’s a need for more space—more space for meetings and events, more space for community recreation, more space for programming. Schools provide a very valuable source of space for many, many community programs, including sport. In York region—you’ll know this, Minister, and it follows up with what MPP Glover was talking about—we’ve seen some organizations go from $1,500 in yearly permit costs to $14,000. In a different league, a basketball league, with the increase in permit fees that they’re experiencing, they’ve said very bluntly, “We’re going to lose kids”—and more than 100 in one league in York region. Registration is down. I know the government is investing in building new facilities all across the province, and renewal of facilities, which I think is a good program and a very important program, by the way. I know for a fact that within schools, we do have vacant space. We do have space—whether it’s in gyms, other spaces—in our schools all across the province that we can better utilize. But now we’re seeing this approach—in boards that have been taken over by the province, but as well in other boards because of declining education funding—where community organizations and groups are struggling to maintain and grow their own programming that they do, that they don’t necessarily receive any other dollars for. These are non-profits, volunteer-run, volunteer-organized. Does that concern you, Minister?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

I think that this government, by the very virtue that you’re talking to a Minister of Sport, shows the importance that this government places on sport and recreation. We appreciate all the impacts it has, both on the athletes and the communities, and the demands that that places. Our population is growing dramatically, as we know. We have a lot of pressure points across many ministries with infrastructure, and sport is not alone in that. The $500-million fund for sport and recreation infrastructure across the province over the next four years is an indication of our priorities. We’re focused on that. A lot of the issues you’ve raised in your question deal with the Ministry of Education, but as I indicated previously to MPP Glover, it’s a conversation I’m happy to have. This government is very focused on making sure Ontarians can live healthy, inclusive lives with access to the recreation they need. We know that investing one dollar upstream in the health of Ontarians, regardless of their age, can have huge impacts downstream on health costs. So it is a priority of this government, yes.

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

Maybe we’ll talk offline afterwards, just around how we can ensure that those community groups and organizations are able to remain sustainable, but also how we expand that. I do recognize that the Ministry of Education is responsible for our school system. I just think we’ve got to utilize every single asset we have that is publicly owned in this province to, to your point, enhance health and wellness. When we are able to build those healthy habits at a young age, we know that continues on throughout life and that there are other positive benefits around health care, for example, and mental health as well. Something that has been in the news quite a bit is government advertising. This government spent an advertising record last year—much of which designed to appear to promote the activities of the government itself. Within the Ministry of Sport, and in any of the $1.72 million in services that went to advertising and communications, did any of that go towards advertising? And what are examples of advertising that the Ministry of Sport is doing?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

I’m going to pass that off to the ADM, but first I would like to say this: Partly with MPP Glover’s support, we passed Bill 22, which is the Ontario University Athletics Week Act. We kicked it off last weekend, and I’ve got many events to go to this week I’m looking forward to. That, I think, does address your question on the extent of our collaboration with our stakeholders. There’s a lot of advertising that’s going on through the OUA and my ministry, through social media, which is having a huge impact. I was just at the Panda Game this past weekend—24,000 fans. It is actually the biggest university sporting event across the country. So we are leveraging other ways of advertising. I think advertising is critical to raising the awareness about sport, about recreation and about the opportunities in Ontario. In terms of direct investment, I’m going to look to the ADM to give the breakdown.

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Through you, Madam Chair: Those figures are estimates. For the most part, the Ministry of Sport is advertising through social media campaigns. The majority of our advertisement and marketing comes by way of our LinkedIn and other social platforms that are available to us. We find that that methodology and approach to advertising and marketing the Ministry of Sport and some of the activities that we are responsible for and participate in is extremely impactful. We have great data on the uptake of those social investments pertaining to social marketing. In regard to things like the FIFA event—again, incorporated $97 million—the city of Toronto took responsibility around that type of advertisement. But through some of the iconic opportunities across the province, like our Honda Indy and the World Cup, you would have seen the provincial logo advertised prominently throughout those events. Again, those opportunities happened by way of our agreements with some of our stakeholders.

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

Around the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund, looking at the estimates—last year, I believe the deputy told the committee that we expect to see $150 million flow to projects in 2025-26. Looking at the estimates right now, I believe it looks like we spend about $79.1 million on capital grants. Does that include the $20.6 million for Centennial Park in this year’s estimates?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

I’ll just speak generally to the CSRIF programming, and I’ll let the ADM speak to that specific question. The envelope that we created of the $200 million last year, in the first year of the program, had the two streams. As I indicated in my comments, 77 of the 94 went to upgrading existing facilities, and 17 were new capital builds. We went all across the province. I think we serviced 80 different communities, and importantly, almost 10%, $19.7 million, went to Indigenous communities to create infrastructure for them. I think if it’s not evident through our after-school programs and our funding an inclusive grassroots program, we are very focused on making sure that all across the province people have access to recreation, regardless of their age, regardless of their abilities and their race or their Indigenous backgrounds. We’re trying to make sure that we reach as many as we can, and $500 million is a huge investment. It is transformative across the province. But there is a lot of demand, as you’ve indicated in many of your questions. So making sure that we get those projects to areas that need them—

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

One minute left.

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

—is a tough decision. With that being said, I’m going to pass it to the DM.

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Thank you, Minister. Through you, Madam Chair: The short answer is no—$200 million was for the CSRIF program, and the $20 million came out of the $97 million that went to the FIFA event to support the new field in Etobicoke.

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

Looking at it through here, we’re looking like we probably got about $70 million or so unspent. Is that just because projects haven’t advanced far enough that funding would be going out the door?

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

Can I get clarification: $70 million of what?

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

In the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund.

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

Yes, that is correct.

Official source

Mr. Rob Cerjanec

So we are expecting those projects to happen, but for some reason or another, from the proponents, they’re not ready to receive that funding yet.

Official source

Mr. Keith Palmer

Yes, 100%.

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

We’ll now move to the government side. MPP Pierre.

Official source

Ms. Natalie Pierre

Minister, thank you for your remarks this morning. It’s an absolute pleasure to be able to serve as your parliamentary assistant in the Ministry of Sport. My question is really a continuation around the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund and about amateur sport in the province of Ontario. We know just how important local sport and recreation facilities are to keeping people active, bringing people together and giving families a place to connect, giving coaches an opportunity to work with their teams, giving athletes sometimes what might be a pathway to further their professional sport abilities or to be able to compete at higher levels. I’m hoping you could tell us about how the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund, or CSRIF, is helping to address the need for infrastructure and recreation in communities across the province. And maybe talk a little bit about how this half-a-billion dollar fund is helping to build and improve facilities across our province.

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

Thank you very much, PA. I feel very fortunate to have you working with me. I know you’ve been in this portfolio for a while, so your contribution has been much appreciated. The CSRIF fund, as I indicated initially, was a single-year line item of $200 million, and we awarded 94 grants, but the demand was overwhelming—I think it was almost 500 requests totalling $1.1 billion. We, in this year’s budget, and Premier Ford, saw the importance and the need out there. So we’ve now expanded the program from the initial $200-million envelope to now half a billion over four years. So the next three years will be $100 million per year, again with the two streams. For me, this is a particularly important topic. It’s actually what got me into the world of politics. I started off being a co-chair of a steering committee for an infrastructure upgrade in Collingwood. We fell short of the mark, because it is a difficult project. It is difficult to find the funding, and we did not have this funding available to us at that time, in 2012. It’s competitive, but it’s extremely important. This huge infrastructure injection, I think, is a very important piece in advancing our communities and working with them to make sure that they have the infrastructure in place so that they can provide the programs for their youth and for their aging athletes and for athletes of all abilities. It’s really about raising the communities and the level of health and activity across the province. As I indicated earlier, an upstream investment of $1 in recreation saves—in 2012, it was $15 in health care; I imagine it’s more than that down the road. And now we see people aging, screen time, social disconnection—these community hubs are just so critical in making sure that our residents have access to a community hub. You go to many of these facilities, and they’ll have a pool, a rink, often a library, sometimes a cultural centre and meeting rooms, and they are busy. It’s a hive of activity from the time they open their doors at 6 in the morning to the time they close at 10 at night. This is the type of community activity that really bonds and helps to cement a community, but it also elevates the level of involvement in the communities and gives our coaches, our volunteers the opportunity to give back to our communities in a way that really powers and raises the living for all of us. Governments are in the business of doing building blocks for our communities—and the volunteer sector and the people who are on the work on the ground, from coaches to administrators, are the mortar that cements those communities and provides the lifestyle that they deserve. So working together in this way with our communities across the province—as I indicated earlier, 10% of the initial $200 million went to Indigenous communities—we are working to raise the lifestyle and the health of our residents across the province, and this initiative is a critical piece to that.

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

MPP Grewal.

Official source

Mr. Hardeep Singh Grewal

Thank you, Minister, Deputy Minister, and the entire team for the great work that you’re doing at the Ministry of Sport. I want to especially congratulate Minister Saunderson on his appointment as minister. It’s going to be a pleasure working with you. Thank you for everything that you’re doing for our province. Building on the questions that were asked by all sides here today on the community infrastructure fund and all of the great assets you’re funding across the province, I wanted to touch on the inclusive grassroots recreational program, and I wanted to touch on some of the investments that we’re making into the Ontario Amateur Sport Fund. Not only is the government investing in building infrastructure, but we’re also investing in making sure that children have the opportunity to participate and play in sport, and that that funding is being allocated into that direction. We see that when we take a look at all of the major sporting events your ministry was able to fund—even through FIFA, with the majority of the players coming from Ontario and almost 30% coming from Brampton. It was an exciting time for our entire community to get together, and that really put that inspiration into kids across the province of joining sport—what it means and how far you can really go through that. That’s why I wanted to highlight this program and see if you can mention some of the opportunities and things that the government has been funding through even our partner programs—through Canadian Tire, Jays Care, Canadian Women and Sport, and all the other great organizations that your ministry is working with in making sure the next generation of Ontarians have opportunity and access to sport.

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

Thank you for the question. It was fun to sit with you on that side of the table too for many years. Also, I gather you’re going to be renaming five soccer pitches in your area to recognize each of the five members of the FIFA program. That’s a huge thing. That’s a stellar example, I think, of how having kids proceed through the system, come up, pursue elite sport and demonstrate excellence lifts the community. I’m sure you’re going to see soccer enrolment go up hugely in Brampton over the next couple of years, because the kids will want to be like those five guys and have a stadium named after them at some point. I saw that in my career, both as a university athlete and as a national team athlete over the time I was on the team. When you go back and you visit the places you came from, it really is incredible to see the kids get excited, and the enrolment go up. It’s also important, I think, to have that opportunity for the kids to be able to compete with and against athletes at that level. When they train with the athletes who have attained that elite status, they get a better understanding of what it takes. They get a better understanding of the work ethic, and they get exposure to the programs, the coaches and the mentoring they need for themselves to progress along that pathway. Elite sport in Ontario has many different forms, especially for our young girls. There are now professional women’s hockey teams. When I was down at the Panda Game, I was talking with Danika from Ottawa U. She is a former national hockey player and is now involved in the administration at the school. She’s coaching and involved with the recruitment for the Ottawa U hockey team. Also, those athletes now have a whole new career direction. They’re not just going to be playing rec league after they finish; they now can aspire to be professional hockey players. She said that has done so much for the quality and the uptake they have at the college level. We have it with the Northern Super League in soccer, the WNBA—incredible opportunities there. I was down at Trent watching the women’s soccer team play, and a number of them have aspirations to play professional soccer. These types of opportunities really enhance the sport runway for a lot of our athletes. But it’s not just about the kids who want to go on and play at the elite level; it’s about making sure that we work on athlete development at all levels. That’s why we’re providing over $9 million in targeted sports investments to support athlete development across the continuum—we have $8.4 million to the Ontario Amateur Sport Fund and $1.07 million to Coaches Association of Ontario to make sure that the infrastructure is there, the network is there to help these athletes achieve their best selves through sport. As I said, that doesn’t always mean going to the elite level. The lessons that you learn through sport, you’ll carry for life. The lessons in teamwork, working together, having a common goal and—any team at any level. To me, the metric is when a team—the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts. That’s when they’re really working together, and it doesn’t matter what level they’re at. Those are lessons they carry with them forever. So we work with our provincial sport organizations, our multi-sport organizations. Through those organizations, we support four million athletes, coaches and officials across the province. And we make sure that we help those athletes achieve their best selves. We also are investing significantly in important programs to reach our kids outside the organized sport world—$44 million over three years in the after-school programs to make sure that our kids are exposed to sport, physical literacy and all the great lessons that it teaches them, in after-school programs by 108 organizations across Ontario. That helps young families and parents who have to work a full day. They know that their kids are in good programs, learning good life lessons, and getting a snack at the same time. We also have the inclusive grassroots sport organization. That is an important level of investment, to make sure that kids are learning and have access to sports where there might be barriers for them in the communities they live in. We want to make sure that they get exposed to active life and the benefits of sport and that community feeling that you get, being a member of a team. So these are all aspects and metrics that we look at when we do our budgeting annually and when we work in collaboration with our stakeholders to make sure that kids have access to healthy living.

Official source

Mr. Hardeep Singh Grewal

Chair, how are we doing for time?

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

You have three minutes and 45 seconds.

Official source

Mr. Hardeep Singh Grewal

Minister, I would just like to follow up on this. We were just talking about all the investments that were made into kids and all of the things that they were doing. We talked a lot about FIFA and soccer. The province also funds and supports a lot of other organizations that drive a lot of economic opportunity and tourism to our beautiful province. This summer, the Honda Dealers Indy was all over TV, and a lot of people were watching. A lot of youth were also involved in that. And I saw so many people enjoy their new relocation from Toronto—and putting Markham’s skyline on the map. Would you like to share some of the investments that were made into the Honda Dealers, how that worked out on the number of people who joined, as well as some of the other items that we were investing in, such as the National Bank Open—that was an amazing, tremendous hit—as well as the RBC Open? So much has been going on across the province—and maybe some highlights on the investments that we’ve been making in other sports across as well.

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

That’s a great question. I know I’ll probably run out of time on this one. Our business model on this and these larger events is to make sure that we’re showing the world that Ontario is a great place to come and compete. So these big professional events, we contribute to on an economic basis. We’re looking at the return on investment for these. In the investments that we’ve made to date, the return has been as high as $16 for every dollar that we’ve invested. We want to make sure that we continue that—that we bring the world to Ontario to compete. FIFA was probably the biggest example of that. I know it was more of a one-time opportunity, but these other events are reoccurring. So we like to make sure that we’re competitive in that field. We also have our sport hosting event funding program—$3 million annually—where we fund programs across, so there can be national, provincial and regional events. So we make sure that we’re providing opportunities for young athletes to come and play on a big stage. Again, the metric there is a return on investment, but it’s also in athlete development. When we look at our programs and the Ontario games, we have five programs—summer and winter games, over 55, and the ParaSport games—all to make sure that we’re giving an opportunity for our best to compete and develop our athletes. The bigger events are about a return on investment, making sure that Ontario is recognized globally as a place to come and compete. Then, internally, we’re making sure that we have events that will help develop our young athletes and coaches, and making sure that they have every opportunity moving forward to develop their skills.

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

There’s one minute left, but you don’t have to take it if you don’t want it.

Official source

Mr. Hardeep Singh Grewal

I’ll definitely take it. There’s so much to discuss here at this great ministry, because not only is it connecting youth, but it connects all of us across the province, as something that creates a shared passion and goal, especially during times of sport when we’re all banded together to support our team against the world. This also gives the opportunity for the ministry to look at a lot of other priorities ahead and opportunities in other sports. What would be some of those priorities that the ministry is currently considering to fund—looking at funding, or has funded and is new and exciting?

Official source

The Chair (Hon. Laurie Scott)

You have 20 seconds, Minister.

Official source

Hon. Brian Saunderson

We’re just on the threshold of announcing the winners for our sport hosting program for the upcoming year. They’re different every year, so the opportunity is there. I guess from a selfish position, it’s wonderful to see the many different sports and the athletes involved. We’re looking forward to that. But it is a great way to build community.

Official source