Sport North's future on the table
Territorial sport organizations and federation's executive talk about how to move forward
James McCarthy
Northern News Services
Monday, November 28, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Sport North will look different come April 1, 2017. Of that there is no doubt. But what will it look like and what services will it offer?
Fort Smith's Cynthia White, Sport North board member, talks about what she heard from territorial sport organization representatives during the Sport North semi-annual meeting in Yellowknife on Nov. 19. - James McCarthy/NNSL photo |
That was one of the discussions that took place during Sport North's semi-annual meeting in Yellowknife on Nov. 19. Every single one of the 30 territorial sport organizations (TSO) and Sport North's executive met to talk about what Sport North should look like in the years ahead.
Sport North president Maureen Miller said it's the first of what will be many discussions.
"We felt it was important to know what the members felt they needed from us," she said. "Our mandate is to promote a healthy environment through sport and if that mandate needs to be changed, what does it look like?"
The day began with a presentation from Ian Legaree, the director of sport, youth and recreation division within the department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA). Several TSO representatives posed questions to Legaree about the process of the new funding arrangement, which will be administered by MACA beginning on April 1, 2017 and will run for at least three years.
"That was the first time we had someone from MACA come and speak directly with the TSOs in a meeting and we certainly appreciated that," said Miller.
Under the current system, TSOs are funded through Sport North, which provided core funding to each TSO. Those organizations apply to Sport North for funding and no matter what, each TSO received a base amount of $1,500. The new system will see MACA fund the organizations directly through an application process, similar to what Sport North has done, but now, TSOs must provide a three-year business plan and it will be reviewed on a yearly basis.
The funding came from lottery proceeds, which was operated by the Sport and Recreation Council (SRC). The SRC then provided funding to the five sport and recreation bodies based in the NWT: Sport North, Aboriginal Sports Circle of the NWT, NWT Recreation and Parks Association, Mackenzie Recreation Association and Beaufort Delta-Sahtu Recreation Association.
Sport North is in the final year of a three-year deal that saw it receive an average of $1.9 million, which funded its administration and programming costs as well as the funding it provided to the TSOs. The base funding Sport North will receive beginning on April 1, 2017, is $900,000.
Following the MACA presentation, the TSO representatives broke off into working groups to give their opinions about what to do for the future.
Miller said there were a couple of things which stood out from those discussions.
"The smaller TSOs said they would be struggling with administration because they don't have the same resources that the larger TSOs have, such as support staff," she said. "The larger TSOs are concerned about the duplication of services, such as funding applications. We wanted to find out about what we could do as a federation to help provide services to the TSOs so they could do their work."
Paul Gard, president of NWT Softball, was one TSO representative who took part in the discussions.
He said it's still much too soon to know what Sport North will look like but he said Sport North still has a role to play in the territory.
"The smaller TSOs need to have a lobbying force and a voice and that's what Sport North can give them," he said. "They don't have the resources to deliver a lot of programs around the NWT so that's one area where Sport North can help them."
Another area where Gard feels Sport North will still be beneficial is in the area of multi-sport games, such as the Arctic Winter Games.
"Sport North needs to be the lead on that," he said. "Setting up regional tryouts for sports may be a role they'll play because it's going to be tough for the TSOs to do that."
The one thing Miller said she won't do is assume what will happen because that won't solve any problems which exist.
"We can only create a plan based on what we know," she said. "I've told the TSOs many times that whenever we find out something, we will tell them and that won't change."
