As Pan Ams loom, Ontario Sport Alliance set to go under

Decision to pull funding linked to ‘financial, governance and operational’ issues: province

The province has pulled funding to the Ontario Sport Alliance, raising the question of what will happen to its programs and services.

The organization has a deficit but the move surprised the volunteer board who thought they would get time to try to fix things.

The board resigned last week and the organization is expected to declare bankruptcy and close its doors in Toronto on Friday.

Killing a sport body three months before the province hosts the Pan Am Games seems a strange move, especially since Michael Coteau, Ontario’s sport minister, on down to Pachi, the mascot, are constantly pushing the importance of Games legacy and inspiring the next generation of athletes.

They are the very people the alliance already targets.

Funding for amateur sport is always difficult to get, and keep, and much of what the alliance does is not an attention grabber: It essentially operates a hub that provides everything from subsidized office space to payroll services.

These are all things that smaller sport organizations, run on a shoestring with a heavy contingent of vol- unteers, may struggle with on their own, which is how the group came about in the first place in 1968.

It has also been running events such as the Ontario Games and programs including the Ontario Sport Awards and the Team Ontario Development Grant.

The $3.5-million provincial funding for those programs and others will continue, with the ministry delivering them directly, Blane McPhail, spokesman for the sport minister, said in an email.

A review found “financial, governance and operational issues that were affecting its ability to adequately deliver our sport programs. In response to the report’s findings and as part of our work to modernize and improve Ontario’s sport system, a decision was made not to renew our funding agreement,” he said.

Times have changed, certainly. Many sport bodies have grown in capabilities and want to be closer to sport venues and athletes reducing the need for a middleman.

“It’s a challenge to go through it but . . . we need to regroup and have more of a lean and progressive operation,” said Susan Kitchen, executive director of the Coaches Association of Ontario, who has been in the sport alliance hub for over a decade.

Part of the provincial funding was used to subsidize office space for Athletics Ontario, Boxing Ontario and dozens of other sport bodies housed in a hub building, northeast of the Don Valley Parkway and Eglinton Ave. “I’m confident that subsidy will be transferred directly to the sport organizations,” Kitchen said, after a Wednesday meeting.

The death knell for the alliance seems to have come from the facilities built for the this summer’s Pan Am Games.

Cycling Ontario moved to the velodrome in Milton, a new hub for athletes, coaches and officials.

The Canadian Sport Institute Ontario moved to Toronto’s Pan Am Sports Centre, which houses multiple high performance sports.

“We’re happy about those infrastructure developments but that has meant the footprint at the hub . . . is way more space that we need.”