Keeping Canada’s athletes at home

By Denissa Palmer

BELLEVILLE – “I would like to see 12,000 CIS athletes becoming ambassadors, ” Bal Gosal, federal minister of state (sport), said to journalism students at Loyalist College on Nov. 7, 2014.

Accompanied by his assistant and former Loyalist graduate, Robert Lynch, Gosal spoke about new sporting organizations, and goals that Canada has in store for the upcoming years. Gosal has been working closely with companies such as  RBC, CIBC and Canadian Tire for more support for Canadian athletes.

Growing up, Gosal played soccer, but expresses his affection for all sports throughout the world. He was elected in 2011, and for the last three years, he has been working closely with several organizations to begin building new projects for sports facilities. He said he looks forward to helping athletes excel in sports within Canada.

“Whenever these athletes represent Canada at any level, they become role models. They become inspiration to all Canadians,” Gosal told students. He said he believes Canada will benefit if more resources are invested into sports.

Gosal has continued to team up with other sports minsters to work towards generating projects for investing into the future of Canadian sports.

As a result, 500 million dollars was budgeted to build facilities throughout the GTA to host the PanAm games in 2015. Gosal said he believes building this infrastructure will benefit Canadian athletes for generations to come.

But Gosal said one of the challenges is to keep Canada’s top athletes home. Many take advantage of scholarships offered to them at schools outside Canada, he said. The Canadian Inter-university Sports(CIS) has recently been working on securing more funding for amateur sports so it can entice students athletes to stay in Canada.

Gosal stated how important it is to have athletes that make the transition to coaching after their careers. “We always a have a shortage of coaching. Especially female coaches. The average male coach stays in for 10 to 12 years. For women, only three to five years,” he continued.

Canada’s Governor General, David Johnston, has declared 2015 one of the biggest sports years in Canadian history. The excitement begins in January with the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship, and continues in February with national winter sports competitions that run until March. Canada will also be hosting the Women’s FIFA World Cup in June, followed by the PanAm games in July and August.