New Liberal minister Carla Qualtrough sees sport as force for good

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It was a memorable birthday: When Carla Qualtrough turned 17, she was at the opening ceremonies of the Seoul Paralympics in 1988.

"It was life-changing," Qualtrough, Canada's new Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, said in an interview on Thursday. "You realize you're part of something bigger than yourself."

Qualtrough won a bronze medal in swim relays in Seoul, and two more bronzes in swim relays at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics. She went on to become a human-rights lawyer while gaining vast experience in sports administration on the side.

In the new cabinet of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the 44-year-old Qualtrough aims to use sport's more prominent place in government to support Canada's athletes competing at elite levels. Trudeau signalled the increased importance of sport by making it a full cabinet position.

Before she was elected, Qualtrough had pushed for sport as a cabinet job. Others did as well, such as the Sport Matters Group, an Ottawa-based lobbyist that is supported by Canada's many national sports federations.

"It's a big deal for sport, to be at the table," said Qualtrough, the MP for Delta in the Vancouver suburbs. "The Prime Minister is a sport guy. He understands sport."

Qualtrough sees opportunities to use sport as a force for good, helping with crime prevention through after-school programs for youth, and promoting better health while combatting obesity. She wants to work closely with other ministries.

"Sport has been historically underutilized in government to address other broader social-policy objectives," she said.

Another big goal is to push for a greater focus on sport in schools.

"If we were to do one great thing for sport in this country, [it would be] to get daily physical activity back in school – mandatory, not a nice-to-have – with a specialist teacher," she said. "We could do a lot of good for the country."

Sport wasn't mentioned in the Liberals election platform, but Qualtrough said new money for recreation facilities could come from the party's pledge to invest $17-billion in infrastructure by 2020. One-third of the money is set for social infrastructure.

"Our recreational infrastructure is aging and crumbling," she said.

In high-performance sport, she said, the government needs to maintain funding and also look at investing more in next-generation athletes. Own the Podium, for instance, is mostly focused on athletes and teams who have a strong shot at a medal at upcoming Olympics. The organization has distributed $500-million in the past decade.

In the former Conservative government's economic action plan, there was a pledge of $5-million annually for four years (to be matched by the private sector) for next-generation athlete funding starting in 2016-17.

The money was to focus on coaching, training and sports science for athletes five to eight years away from a potential Olympic or Paralympic medal.

Qualtrough also sees opportunities to better organize sport in Canada. There are 50-plus national sports organizations, from bigger ones such as Canada Basketball to lesser-known entities such as Bowls Canada, a lawn bowling group. One idea the minister floated was to have one financial executive or operations person to be responsible for more than one national sports organization.

"We need to create efficiencies," Qualtrough said. "We need to look at where economies of scale make sense."

Some work on this front is already underway. Snow Sports Canada, a partnership of seven winter sports groups, was created several years ago, to bolster individual efforts to drum up sponsorships and the like.