Several stakeholders surveyed by The newspaper believe that government involvement is necessary to establish real sound governance in Hockey Quebec. For her part, the Minister of Sports Isabelle Charest assures that the federation has all the levers to move this issue forward.
However, by announcing that he would leave his position next June, Jocelyn Thibault mentioned on numerous occasions the fact that Hockey Quebec does not have the necessary “levers” to make real changes, to initiate concrete reform.
Saturday, the Newspaper explained how, to some extent, changing the Sports Safety Act could help HQ gain some leverage to exercise some control over hockey played in the province.
In terms of governance, things are changing, of course, but Thibault’s departure exposed the limits of what Hockey Quebec was able to do, even if it should in theory be the premier authority for sport in the province.
To a point where, for many, the government in place, through Minister Charest, could unlock the “levers” that Thibault lacked.
Towards sanctions?
The latter has repeatedly repeated the flaws in governance, especially within regional federations. Since his departure, several examples of what is wrong have been exposed.
In HQ offices, significant changes in governance were made under Thibault, especially at head office, to meet the governance code imposed by the ministry in 2022.
Among the main changes: each member of the board of directors will not be able to serve more than four two-year terms, for a maximum of eight years of service. An independent nomination committee was also set up, to avoid friends nominating each other. We are also asking for more diversity on the board of directors as well as the addition of co-opted members. Apart from a few details, everything was put in place according to government recommendations.
Resistance
Now, Hockey Quebec has the mandate to apply this code first to the 14 provincial federations, then it will then be the turn of the minor hockey associations that they oversee.
But resistance is felt, once again exposing the lack of levers at Hockey Quebec.
As in society in general, change can be difficult to bring about, especially in associations accustomed to governing themselves and some of whose members have been working for ten or even twenty years, without having had to be accountable to anyone.
At the end of the day, how can the federation impose anything if it does not have the power to impose sanctions?
This is where there is a vagueness.
“That’s not what we were told.”
According to what we have been told, Minister Charest was clear in meetings with Hockey Quebec: the authorities that resist will be threatened with seeing certain subsidies withdrawn from them if they persist in turning a deaf ear.
In interview with The newspaperthe minister was, however, less incisive on the role that the government can play in the governance issue at HQ.
“Hockey Quebec has levers,” she assured. There are things to put in place and we will support Hockey Quebec, that’s already what we’re doing. […] If they want to put sanctions in place, they are the ones who have these levers.”
A speech that surprised the president of the board of directors of Hockey Québec, Claude Fortin.
“That’s not at all what we were told. What’s the point of putting this in place if you have no teeth to enforce it? We did everything in good faith, we set up a committee for the sake of transparency and we did business with a partner (BNP Philanthropic Performance) who came to give us advice. We pay the BNP bill.”
So what levers can the minister talk about?
“What we could do is pass a resolution and remove the voting privileges of an association. What climate do you think this will create internally?”
A little unicorn juice?
Behind the scenes, some see it as a political game and recall the threats made by the ministry to the QMJHL if they refused to comply with their demands on the issue of the abolition of fighting.
For his part, the one who will succeed Jocelyn Thibault, Stéphane Auger, has not fallen out of his chair. He had heard the same things that were told to the Newspaper.
In his eyes, everyone will have to get involved if the intention is truly to resolve the governance problems in minor hockey, at all levels.
“There’s no such thing as unicorn juice. We can’t all have a big glass of it and that solves everything, he imagines. There will have to be the will of everyone, and I’m not just talking about the ministry or the federation. Everyone must understand that they have a job to do. For my part, I will work with those who want it to work.
Auger knows, however, that government intervention can sometimes be beneficial in moving forward on stagnating issues.
“When we were trying to harmonize school hockey, the negotiations were not moving forward and at one point the minister forced us to sit down together and said: there’s no time. We finally managed to come to an agreement.”
And what would national sport status mean?
The president of the Quebec Committee on the Development of Hockey in Quebec, Marc Denis, and the Minister for Education, responsible for Leisure and Sport, Isabelle Charest, presented their report after several months of consultation, on May 5, 2022.
Photo Agence QMI, Marcel Tremblay
Could the recognition of hockey as the national sport of Quebec help Hockey Quebec obtain more powers? If some behind the scenes believe that yes, the Minister of Sports Isabelle Charest is categorical: it would only be a “nice mention”, nothing more.
“Raise hockey to the rank of national sport of Quebec” was the very first recommendation issued in the report of the Quebec Committee on the Development of Hockey.
During our discussions, certain speakers pointed us out as to the intentions behind this request. Two members of this committee told us that the goal of this recommendation was to offer Hockey Québec a special, more “VIP” status, allowing it to work under fewer constraints.
To help, ultimately, give Hockey Quebec the means to achieve its ambitions.
“We wanted to provoke things,” explained the president of the said committee, Marc Denis. Our desire was for shoes to walk the talk since Prime Minister François Legault had spoken of hockey as our national sport during the press conference to establish the committee. […] Being a national emblem goes further than sport, it is transposed into many other spheres,” he added, preferring however not to advance on the possible powers that this status could confer.
For Minister Charest, however, this is not the case. His ministry as well as that of Culture and Communications of Minister Mathieu Lacombe “are having discussions together” with the aim of implementing this recommendation.
However, she assures that it will not offer special status or additional funding to HQ.
“Lacrosse is our national summer sport and that doesn’t change anything,” she says.