Quote:
Originally Posted by simmer2
[/b]Okay, so I've done some digging on this and here is what I've come up with for funding of Canada Vs. Australia:
Australia Funding
Sport funding in Australia is supported by the government to the tune of $2.142 billion Australian Dollars in 2005-06 (worth slightly less than Canadian Dollars). This is shared between the state and the federal government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_in_Australia
(I know it is wiki so take with a grain of salt but it is likely within the ballpark)
Canada Funding
http://gymbrooke.com/funding.htm
According to this website about $133mm was funded to Canadian sports programs in 2005-2006. If you add in the $117mm 5-year Own The Podium strategy, that addes about $20mm extra per year, so that works out to about $155mm/year spent on amateur sports. This is spread between Winter and Summer events but the weight is generally much heavier on the Winter events.
Again, this is just a brief search but if it is correct, then Australia spends 16x more money on Amateur sports than Canada. Australia also has only 21 million people vs. Canada's 35 million people so per person this funding is even less in Canada.
As for the argument about social programs, the last time I checked Australia had a very good Universal Health Care program and their social programs are still funded strongly. Taxation in Australia is roughly the same as Canada's, except they have a 10% GST versus our 5% GST.
Either way, I don't buy the argument that by funding more amateur sports hurts other social programs, we just need to re-allocate the money better. Kids look up to heroes at the olympics and get involved because we do well. That in turn gets kids involved in sports which keeps them healthier which reduces health care costs, etc. etc. Not to mention the value of pursuing a sport to its fullest and realizing what you can achieve. |
That's an apples and oranges comparison. That Australian total includes "total government funding for sports and recreation activities." Given that 49% of that funding comes from local governments suggests to me that they're including virtually every facility in the entire country. In order to make an analogous comparison for Canada, you would have to include every government subsidised arena, baseball field, soccer field, community center, pool, etc. I can say with great certainty, that if you included all of the sports facilities in Canada, that the total would be much, much greater than $155 million a year (a single pool near where I live requires over $2 million a year in government funding to operate).