“A breath of fresh air”

The Quebec government’s announcement of $ 70 million in assistance was greeted with joy by the various sports organizations.

“It’s really a breath of fresh air for organized sport,” said Sports Quebec’s general manager, Alain Deschamps. This help is timely. There is a nice breakdown of aid. These sums will help to ensure the sustainability of organized sport and to consider an imminent relaunch. We’re going to be okay for a while, but we’ll be in a bad position if we find ourselves at the same point in a year.

“The blind spot of this announcement is that no sum is directed directly to sports associations or clubs,” to continue Deschamps. The underlying goal is that the provincial organizations can in turn help their associations and clubs, but to be realistic, only a few federations can do it. The others will have no choice but to use these sums for their immediate survival. “

Resilience and creativity

Paul Ménard is delighted with Minister Isabelle Charest’s announcement.

“I am very happy for the people on the field,” said the general manager of Hockey Quebec. We want to help them. I also liked that M^me Charest underlines the resilience and creativity of our world during his press briefing. Our people work so hard to keep hockey alive. The minister also mentioned that sport was a priority. We want a return to the ice as quickly as possible. In our phase 3 of the recovery plan, we are working on individual skills in training, which we could easily do now. “

Hockey Quebec suffered a 30% drop in registrations compared to the same date last year. Registration fell from 90,000 to 60,000 members.

“The federation is absolutely not in danger this year, but the reserves can be eaten, summarized Ménard. Tournaments represent as much income as registrations. We have tournaments canceled every week. We are far from phase 6, which foresees the return of tournaments. We really don’t want to increase registration costs. We are currently targeting a deficit of $ 500,000, whereas the projections were $ 1.4 million in the spring. “

Relieved soccer world

Mathieu Chamberland also welcomes government assistance.

“We are very happy with this boost because the system had a real need,” said the general manager of Soccer Quebec. The rental of indoor stadiums represents significant costs and there is a lot of stress on clubs and their ability to retain human resources. We hope to be able to alleviate their stress. We will put the money where the needs are greatest. “

During the summer period, the number of members of Soccer Quebec increased from 170,000 to 105,000.

The 65 federations and national organizations will share 28 of the $ 70 million in proportion to the number of their members according to the criteria of the programs already in place. Funding for federations is increased by 60%.

“It was necessary as an aid and I am happy,” said Enrico Ciccone, Liberal MP for Marquette and official opposition spokesperson for sports, recreation and healthy lifestyles. I would have liked to see more work done upstream, but it is not easy to get new money from the Conseil du trésor. “