PhD T.V. Dolmatova¹
PhD A.A. Baryaev^2
1Federal Scientific Center for Physical Culture and Sports, Moscow
²St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture, St. Petersburg

Keywords: physical activity, mass sports, provincial government, physical education and sports.

Backgroundю As required by the Presidential Decree of May 7, 2018 No. 204 "On the national goals and strategic progress objectives of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024", the physical education and sport service should be provided on a regular basis to at least 55% of the total population by 2024 [1]. This mission may be facilitated by studies of the best foreign physical education and sport service modeling and management experiences accumulated by the global sports leading nations – including Canada with its vast experience and progress record in the popular physical activity, mass sports and elite sports promotion domains. We believe it could be beneficial in this context to have overviewed and analyzed the Canada's physical education and sport sector design and management experience.

Objective of the study was to analyze benefits of the provincial physical education and sport service design and management models traditional for Canada.

Methods and structure of the study. We used for the purposes of the study an institutional structure analysis in application to the provincial physical education and sport sector models existing in the Canadian regional government system; plus analyses of the relevant study reports, case studies and summaries.

Results and discussion. Any national physical education and sport system design analysis needs to factor in the actual regional government system. It should be mentioned in this context that the Canadian constituents (provinces and territories) are widely different in the physical education and sport sector management models – that have been designed on a largely individual basis, with the provincial ministries often being in charge of the local physical education and sport sector and the related services. In Ontario province, for example, the physical education and sport system is controlled by the Ministry of Heritage, Sports, Tourism and Culture [2], with its Sports Department mandated to develop governmental policies for the physical education and sport sector, regulate services of the provincial sports organizations and federations, control implementation of the relevant federal physical education and sport programs and come up with its own public physical activity encouragement/ promotion initiatives.

The Ministry controls a separate Communities Fund for disbursement of grant financing for the physical education and sport / recreation service projects that are generally designed to encourage mass physical activity / health and physical education activity in Ontario, with a special priority to children, youth and senior population groups. The Ministry also disburses the relevant budgetary finance to the provincial sports organizations via the Ontario Amateur Sports Foundation [3]. Top-ranking federal and international sports events hosted by the province are financed by the Ministry under the relevant federal sports support program directly funded by Sports Canada federal agency [4]. The Ministry is also responsible for the organization and management services to Ontario Games, the largest provincial sports event [5] launched back in 1970 to promote amateur sports in the province. Games for senior population groups in Ontario and other provinces are supported by the Canadian Association for Games for Seniors [6].

The physical education and sport sector in Manitoba province is regulated by the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage on the whole and its Sports Secretariat in particular. The latter supervises Sports Manitoba organization [7] in charge of the provincial sports policies implementation initiatives and the Winter and Summer Games in Manitoba. In addition, Sports Manitoba controls the disbursement of finance from the provincial government and private donors including scholarships and grants to the local sports organizations [8].

Physical education and sport systems in many provinces of Canada are administered by special agencies reporting to the relevant ministries. Thus the provincial government of British Columbia includes the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture with its Sports Office responsible for the provincial physical education and sport policies and strategies and supporting the local communal sports organizations. In addition, the Sports Office is responsible for interagency liaison and collaboration in the physical education and sport related matters in British Columbia [9]. The provincial physical education and sport progress policies are implemented by a non-commercial ViaSport organization funded by and reporting to the Sports Office. ViaSport is responsible, among other things, for disbursements of the relevant funds to the local sports organizations [10]. The provincial physical education and sport policies and practices are also facilitated by a non-commercial Sport BC Federation that unites more than 60 provincial sports organizations.

British Columbia is no less active than the above Ontario and Manitoba provinces in hosting the Winter and Summer Games every year, with its regional corporation BC Games Society (reporting to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture) being directly responsible for the organization and management services to these top-ranking provincial competitions and for trainings of the provincial elite sports teams competing at the national level [11]. It may be pertinent to mention that British Columbia takes special efforts to lure the local indigenous people in habitual physical education and sport / health practices [12].

physical education and sport sector in the Northwest Territory, one more Canada’s constituent, is under control of the Ministry of Municipal and Public Affairs’ Sports, Recreation and Youth Office – that is responsible for disbursement of the physical education and sport promotion funds – much like the above British Columbia’s Sports Office. The Sports, Recreation and Youth Office is supported in its physical education and sport progress mission by the Sport North Federation, an umbrella organization for the sports federations in Northwest Territory with a special responsibility for the territorial elite sports development policies. As of 2019, the Sport North Federation reported incorporating 30 regional sports federations, plus the Association for Parks and Recreation of the North-West Territory [13]. The Sport North Federation management, with support from the Ministry of Municipal and Public Affairs, offers annual grant programs for the leading provincial athletes successful in competitions, with the grants endorsed by a special commission composed of the Sport North Federation members and representatives of the Ministry of Municipal and Public Affairs [14].

The physical education and sport agencies of the Northwest Territory give a special priority to the popular physical activity and mass sports encouragement initiatives. Thus, presently the Sports, Recreation and Youth Office takes special efforts to implement an Extracurricular Physical Activity Program to physically activate the local children and youth. The Office provides funding to local schools and communal organizations to promote the traditional and develop new physical activity models and tools at schools on an off-class basis [15].

Conclusion. The physical education and sport sector control model that implies the responsibilities for the local physical activity and mass sports being separated from the elite sports related ones – is rather typical for many provinces and territories of Canada, with special agencies vested with responsibilities for the top-ranking events and elite sports in provinces - including the British Columbia Games Society, Sports Manitoba, Alberta Sport Connections (in Alberta province), Sport North Federation (in the Northwest Territory) etc. Therefore, as demonstrated by the above analysis, responsible for the elite sports development policies and practices and the relevant support for the provincial sports federations in Canada are rather the special physical education and sport agencies than the relevant local government offices.

References

1. Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 7, 2018 No. 204 “On national goals and strategic objectives of development of the Russian Federation for the period until 2024” [Electronic resource]. Available at: http://www.garant.ru/products/ipo/prime/doc/71837200/#ixzz5QdO9VnnA (Date of access: 31.08.2019).
2. Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries. Available at: https://www.ontario.ca/page/ministry-heritage-sport-tourism-culture-industries (Date of access: 21.01.2020).
3. Ontario Amateur Sport Fund 2017-2019. Available at: http://www.grants.gov.on.ca/GrantsPortal/en/OntarioGrants/GrantOpportunities/OSAPQA005145(Date of access: 28.01.2020).
4. Ontario Sport Hosting Program. Available at: http://www.mtc.gov.on.ca/en/sport/sport/hosting_program.shtml (Date of access: 23.01.2020).
5. Games Ontario. Available at: http://www.mtc.gov.on.ca/en/sport/gamesontario/gamesontario.shtml (Date of access: 24.01.2020).
6. Canada 55+ Games. Available at: https://canada55plus.ca/index.php/about-us/history/ (Date of access: 26.01.2020).
7. About Sport Manitoba. Available at: https://www.sportmanitoba.ca/about/ (Date of access: 28.01.2020).
8. Funding Sport Manitoba. Available at: https://www.sportmanitoba.ca/resources/funding/ (Date of access: 28.01.2020).
9. Sport Canada. Frequently Asked Questions. Available at: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/sports-culture/sports/sport-frequently-asked-questions#OtherGroups (Date of access: 26.01.2020).
10. ViaSport. About Us. Available at: https://www.viasport.ca/about-us (Date of access: 27.01.2020).
11. BC Gaming Society. Available at: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/organizational-structure/ministries-organizations/crown-corporations/bc-games-society (Date of access: 22.01.2020).
12. ISPARC Grants and Recognition. Available at: https://isparc.ca/grants-recognition/ (Date of access:  28.01.2020).
13. Sport North Federation. About Us. Available at: https://www.sportnorth.com/about/about-us (Date of access: 29.01.2020).
14. High Performance Athlete Grant. Available at: https://www.maca.gov.nt.ca/en/services/high-performance-athlete-grant (Date of access: 28.01.2020).
15. After School Physical Activity Program. Available at: https://www.maca.gov.nt.ca/en/services/after-school-physical-activity-program (Date of access: 27.01.2020).

Corresponding author: rudra54@yandex.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to identify effective models of the education culture and sport sector organization and management at the regional level in Canada.

Methods and structure of the study. An institutional approach was applied to study the organizational structure of physical education and sports in accordance with the specifics of the administrative-territorial structure of Canada. The following research methods were applied: analysis of literary sources, case-study, generalization.

Results of the study and conclusions. The article presents the analysis of the current organization and management system in the sphere of physical education and sports at the provincial and territorial levels of Canada. By the example of the activities of local government and voluntary organizations, we showed the mechanisms for involving various population groups in physical education and sports activities at the local level. Thus, it is specialized organizations that organize and manage sports events and develop elite sports in the Canadian provinces: in British Columbia - "The British Columbia Games Society", in Manitoba - "Sport Manitoba", in Alberta - "Alberta Sport Connection", and in the Northwest territory - Sport North Federation.

Thus, the analysis shows that the development of elite sports through the coordination of regional sports federations in the Canadian provinces is often carried out by the specially established physical education and sports organizations rather than by the field-specific authorities, which is a characteristic feature of organization of physical education and sports in Canada.