Canada’s Sport System Is Broken. A Federal Commission Just Said So — and What It Means for Soccer in NB
On March 24, 2026, the Future of Sport in Canada Commission released its final report — a 650-page document titled Transforming Sport in Canada: Time for Action. It was the result of 18 months of work: 591 meetings, testimony from over 1,000 individuals including 175 victims and survivors of maltreatment in sport, and submissions from 270 sport organizations across the country.
The report’s central message is direct. Commissioner Lise Maisonneuve and her Special Advisors wrote in their preface that Canada’s sport system has “profound” challenges — “from underfunding and governance deficits, duplication of efforts among organizations, fragmentation and a lack of integration of policies and programs, to an unhealthy focus on high-performance outcomes over participant safety and dignity.” They went further: “At times, we wondered whether this can even be described as a ‘sport system’ given the pervasive problems that exist.”
This is a federal commission calling Canada’s sport system broken. Not a critic from the outside — the body the federal government itself created and mandated.
For anyone involved in soccer in New Brunswick, the Maritimes, or across Canada, this report is worth understanding. It is not just about Olympic scandals and elite athlete abuse — though those are central to it. It is a sweeping diagnosis of a system that governs the sport your children play in, the clubs that receive provincial and federal funding, the coaches who work with youth across this province every weekend.
What the Commission Found: A Fragmented, Underfunded System
The Commission was established in May 2024 by the Government of Canada, following years of public revelations about maltreatment in sport — abuse in gymnastics, swimming, hockey, rugby, and more. Its mandate was to examine both safe sport and the broader sport system.
What it found goes well beyond individual abusers and bad actors. The Commission identified a structural problem: a sport system in which authority is fragmented across dozens of national sport organizations, provincial bodies, multisport service organizations, and levels of government — with no single entity responsible for strategy, funding oversight, or enforcement of standards.
The report notes that even National Sport Organizations that receive federal funding routinely fail to meet basic safe sport conditions attached to that funding. A 2024 study was cited finding that 4 in 10 coaches cannot identify what values make a positive sport culture. Between 75% and 85% of Canadian athletes report experiencing some form of maltreatment in their sporting journey, according to studies cited in the report.
The Commission was also direct about the barriers keeping Canadians — particularly young people in smaller communities, newcomers, Indigenous people, people with disabilities, and those from lower-income backgrounds — out of sport entirely. Sport participation requires money, access to facilities, and the availability of local programs. In many parts of Canada, including rural and small-city New Brunswick, those three things are in short supply.
The Big Proposal: A Crown Corporation for Sport
The Commission’s most significant structural recommendation is the creation of a Centralized Sport Entity — a federal Crown Corporation, modelled on what Australia and New Zealand have done with their national sport commissions, and similar in structure to the Canada Council for the Arts.
The proposed Crown Corporation would consolidate what is currently scattered across Sport Canada, Own the Podium, the Coaching Association of Canada, and other bodies. Its mandate would include: distributing all federal sport funding; developing national sport and physical activity policy; overseeing governance standards for funded sport organizations; and running national safe sport education programs. It would operate at arm’s length from government — designed specifically to reduce political interference in sport funding and governance decisions.
The rationale is straightforward: the current fragmentation means no one is clearly accountable when things go wrong, and no one has a full picture of where sport in Canada is succeeding or failing. A single entity with a clear mandate, stable funding, and independence from political cycles would change that.
This is not a small proposal. Creating a federal Crown Corporation requires legislation and significant political will. The report acknowledges this — it proposes a phased approach, with responsibilities transferring to the new entity over time as it is built. But the recommendation is unambiguous: the current arrangement is not working, and a new structure is needed.
Safe Sport: The Changes That Would Reach Every Club
The Commission’s safe sport proposals are among the most immediately relevant for clubs and provincial sport organizations like Soccer NB.
The current national safe sport system — the Canadian Safe Sport Program, administered by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport — only covers participants in federally funded national-level sport organizations. In its first three months of operation (April to June 2025), the Centre received 111 reports. Only 11 fell within its scope. Of the 100 that did not, 82% involved sport at the club or provincial level — exactly where most New Brunswickers play.
The Commission’s response is a proposed Multilateral Sport Framework: a federal-provincial agreement that would require every province and territory, as a condition of receiving federal funding, to establish its own independent safe sport authority — one that covers all levels of sport, including clubs, not just nationally funded organizations. The model is drawn explicitly from the Canada Health Act and the federal-provincial childcare agreements.
If implemented, this would mean that a complaint against a coach at a community soccer club in Moncton, Fredericton, or Bathurst would have somewhere to go — an independent, provincially run body with the jurisdiction and resources to handle it. Today, it largely does not.
Alongside this, the Commission calls for a National Background Screening Policy applicable to all coaches, officials, referees, volunteers, and employees in contact with athletes — standardized across the country and subsidized by the federal government. It also calls for a Pan-Canadian Registry of Sanctioned Individuals, so that a coach suspended in one province cannot simply move to another and continue coaching.
These are not radical ideas. They are common-sense safeguards that most Canadians would assume already existed. The Commission’s finding is that they largely do not — and that the gaps are most acute at exactly the level where most young Canadians, including young soccer players in New Brunswick, actually participate in sport.
Infrastructure and Funding: The Calls That Matter Most for Small Provinces
For New Brunswick and the Maritimes, the report’s sections on infrastructure and funding may carry the most direct long-term significance.
The Commission noted that the federal government’s last major comprehensive investment in sport facility construction was in 1967 — the centennial. Many of those facilities have not been upgraded, refurbished, or replaced. The report describes Canada’s sport infrastructure as “critical infrastructure” in the same category as roads and hospitals — and argues it has been systematically neglected.
The Commission’s calls to action here are specific: a national sport infrastructure strategy developed in collaboration with provinces and territories; a dedicated federal sport infrastructure program; and a requirement that a defined percentage of federal infrastructure transfers to provinces be directed to sport and recreation facilities. It also calls on all levels of government to enable private investment in sport infrastructure, noting that the Canada Infrastructure Bank currently excludes sport facilities from its eligible categories.
For a province like New Brunswick — smaller population, lower average incomes, aging facilities in many communities — a national infrastructure strategy with dedicated sport funding would be meaningful. The Commission explicitly acknowledged that some regions have more wealth and infrastructure than others, and that a national strategy must address these disparities. It specifically noted that remote and Indigenous communities face even greater challenges.
On funding more broadly, the Commission found that the current federal funding model is short-term, fragmented, and heavily weighted toward high-performance outcomes. It called for a new long-term funding strategy that gives equal weight to broad sport participation and high-performance sport — a shift that would benefit community-level programs, youth sport, and grassroots clubs that currently receive little direct federal support.
The Commission also highlighted the Community Sport for All Initiative — $10.5 million over 2024–2026, aimed at removing barriers for under-represented groups — as a model worth continuing and expanding. Notably, it flagged that funding for this program was set to end in 2026, and called for its continuation. For organizations like Soccer NB that work with newcomer populations, youth from lower-income families, and underserved communities, this program and its potential successor directly affect what is possible at the provincial level.
What This Means Specifically for Soccer in New Brunswick
Soccer is the most-participated sport among children in Canada. A 2005 Statistics Canada survey cited in the Commission’s report found that 40% of children aged 5 to 14 play soccer. That participation rate almost certainly reflects New Brunswick’s reality as well — soccer is the province’s largest youth sport, run by Soccer NB and delivered by clubs from Edmundston to Sackville, Moncton to Campbellton.
The Commission’s findings and proposals touch every level of that system.
On safe sport: if the Multilateral Sport Framework is implemented and New Brunswick establishes an independent provincial safe sport authority, the everyday soccer community — coaches, players, parents — would gain access to a complaint mechanism that currently does not exist for club-level sport. The work Soccer NB has done to develop safe sport policies would sit within a more coherent, enforceable structure. The proposed standardized background screening policy would apply to coaches at community clubs, filling gaps that today are addressed inconsistently, if at all.
On infrastructure: NB soccer plays on a mix of fields and facilities — some good, many aging, and in smaller communities often limited. The Canada Community Building Fund, which the report notes has supported soccer field turf replacement across Canada, flows through exactly the provincial-to-municipal channel the Commission wants to see better directed toward sport. A national sport infrastructure strategy with dedicated funding would give municipalities, school boards, and provincial bodies clearer pathways to upgrade or build the facilities soccer needs to grow.
On participation and barriers: the Commission’s findings on financial barriers to sport are directly relevant here. Registration fees, equipment costs, and travel costs keep young players — particularly in lower-income families and smaller communities — out of the game. The Commission called explicitly for expanded programs to subsidize participation costs, for culturally appropriate programming for newcomers and Indigenous youth, and for schools to increase access to sport and physical activity. In New Brunswick, where soccer has been a genuine vehicle for newcomer integration and community building in cities like Moncton, these are not abstract policy questions.
On governance: the Commission’s calls for mandatory governance standards for all funded sport organizations — clear boards, financial controls, athlete representation, transparent policies — will eventually flow down to Provincial and Territorial Sport Organizations. Soccer NB, like every PSO, will be operating in an environment that increasingly requires compliance with these standards as a condition of funding. That is not a burden — it is the kind of accountability framework that protects the organization and the people it serves.
A Note on the Maritimes More Broadly
New Brunswick is not alone in facing these issues. Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are navigating the same infrastructure gaps, the same funding fragmentation, and the same safe sport challenges at the club level. The report’s proposals, if implemented, would affect all three provinces.
There is one Maritime-specific detail worth noting: Nova Scotia is already ahead of the national curve on at least one of the Commission’s priorities. The report specifically cited Sport Nova Scotia’s work on restorative justice in sport — in partnership with the Restorative Lab at Dalhousie University — as a model of provincial-level innovation in safe sport. Nova Scotia piloted a restorative approach for Team Nova Scotia at the 2025 Canada Summer Games. The Commission highlighted this as evidence that provinces can lead on safe sport even before national frameworks exist.
Also notable: Fredericton was identified in the report as one of four cities across Canada chosen for the ParticiPARKs program — a public outdoor sport infrastructure initiative. That specific mention of New Brunswick in the context of physical activity infrastructure reflects the kind of national attention that this report, if acted upon, could amplify.
Now What?
The Future of Sport in Canada Commission has completed its work. The final report is now in the hands of the Government of Canada. The Commission made 69 Calls to Action — not recommendations in the advisory sense, but calls for concrete, specific actions by specific actors.
Whether those calls are acted upon depends on political will, budget decisions, and federal-provincial negotiation. Creating a Crown Corporation requires legislation. Negotiating a Multilateral Sport Framework requires provinces to sign on. Building a national safe sport registry requires privacy law alignment across jurisdictions. None of this happens quickly or automatically.
But the direction of travel is clear — and for soccer in New Brunswick, most of it points toward things that would strengthen the game at every level. A safer environment for young players, better-funded clubs and infrastructure, more accessible pathways to participation, and a governance structure that holds organizations accountable without choking the volunteer-driven community that actually makes the sport run.
The Commission’s final word in its preface was: “Change is absolutely essential.”
The soccer community in New Brunswick — players, parents, coaches, club administrators, and Soccer NB — has a stake in whether that change happens, and how.
Source: Transforming Sport in Canada: Time for Action — Final Report of the Future of Sport in Canada Commission, March 24, 2026. Commissioner Lise Maisonneuve; Special Advisors Noni Classen and Andrew Pipe. Published by the Government of Canada / Canadian Heritage.