The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (CAHPERD) commends The Honourable Stephen Owen, Minister of State (Sport) on his public statement regarding the importance of grassroots sport education programs as a critical element to the development of Canadian athletes. "Minister Owen is bang-on with his approach to encourage the federal government to increase provincial funding for school sport development," says Garth Turtle, CAHPERD president. "Not only will this help to enhance the amount of physical activity that our children participate in on a daily basis, but it will also offer them the opportunity to learn a variety of sports, enable early identification of their natural talents and abilities, and will contribute to Canada's success at getting our athletes on to the Olympic podium." Over the last decade, schools have faced increasing budget cuts and competing priorities within the school curriculum. Physical education, intramural sport, and interscholastic sport have fallen victim to these cuts. Today, the majority of Canadian students do not receive the minimum time allotted to physical education and sport programs as stated in provincial curricula, teaching has fallen into the hands of generalist teachers who are not trained to teach a quality physical education program, and extra-curricular intramural and school sport programs have been drastically reduced or are non-existent in many Canadian schools. "The quality and quantity of school physical education and sport programs are suffering in schools across Canada," says Mr. Turtle. "This has contributed significantly to the declining levels of physical activity and sport participation among our children, and will have long term impacts on the number of elite athletes representing Canada in the future." Schools are the only institution that can reach every child in Canada, regardless of gender, culture, ability, or socio-economic background, to provide them with the knowledge, skills and opportunity to be physically active. CAHPERD is urging the federal government to provide strong leadership by mandating the importance of quality school physical education and sport experiences for every child in Canada. The Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (CAHPERD) is a national, charitable, voluntary-sector organization whose primary concern is to influence the healthy development of children and youth by advocating for quality health, physical education and sport experiences.
