Sport in Newfoundland and Labrador is about to take a major hit due to the recently revamped summer student job program. Major cuts in grants that are typically received by sports will impact their ability to run summer programs. President of Sport Newfoundland and Labrador, Tom Godden says, "Most of our provincial sport organizations rely on these grants to offer summer programs to children across the province. With the recent cuts, there will be a significant number of sports that will be placed in a position where they will not be able to offer a summer program."

The impact of this will be felt in many areas. Kids will now lose opportunities to participate in physical activity, communities stand to loose economic revenue as a result of spin-offs that would occur when tournaments and camps are held in their region, and hundreds of students who rely on these summer jobs to help pay for tuition and ultimately the health of our kids will be in jeopardy. Mr. Godden states, "In a time when both the federal and provincial governments have placed such an emphasis on physical activity, increased participation in sport and increasing the health of our nation, we see a major reduction in grants that have been linked to providing opportunities for the children and youth of our province to participate in physical activity."

Provincial Sport Organizations are scratching their heads as to why the process has changed and who is receiving the grants. There seems to be inconsistency in the evaluation of application and how they are ranked. "Everyone we talk to it seems have either had their grants significantly cut or have lost their grants all together. Then there are some who have received more than they have applied for. It�s unclear as to what the current criteria are and why it has changed without any notice" Mr. Godden said.

A number of years ago sport in this province experienced a decline in registration numbers and have worked hard to get those numbers on the incline in the last few years. In the current situation, many sports now stand to lose significant registration numbers because of the inability to deliver programs, especially in regions of the province where a lot of work has been done to develop programs so kids would have opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity. Mr. Godden comments, "Sport represents the largest number of volunteers in any sector in our country. The amount of work they contribute to programs in their communities is significant and without summer students, volunteers will have to fill the void. Our fear is that volunteers will burn out because of this and not only do we loose programs but we also stand to lose our greatest asset in the sport and recreation sector, our volunteers."

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Media contact:
Troy Croft
Sport Newfoundland and Labrador
709-576-4932
troy@sportnl.ca

2007 05 18                                                 10:30 a.m.