Federal government to announce new funding for 60 national sport organizations: sources

Myles Dichter · CBC Sports

· Posted: Oct 22, 2026 9:01 AM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

Canada’s national sport organizations (NSOs) are set to receive a long-awaited financial boost.

The federal government will announce supplemental funding for 60 NSOs on Thursday, sources told CBC Sports.

“I think it is transformational and that word has been used. And I think it is. I think it is. It's what the sports system really needed,” Suzanne Paulins, the CEO of Swimming Canada and a co-chair of the Summer Sport Caucus, told CBC Sports.

The new funding will take effect this fiscal year. It is not clear when the money will hit NSO bank accounts, though it is not expected to take long.

Thursday’s announcement marks the latest step in the rollout of a funding boost that was first announced in April and comprises of $660 million in sport support funding over five years directly to NSOs, multi-sport organizations (MSOs) as well as Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network members (COPSINs).

In September, CBC Sports reported that over 101 applications were submitted with a sum ask of roughly $168 million. 

• Feds to begin sport funding rollout ‘imminently’ after months-long application process

The supplemental funding for three NSOs — Canada Basketball ($1.8 million), Alpine Canada ($2.77 million) and Wheelchair Canada Basketball (close to $800,000) — was previously announced in September. The funding for three others has yet to be finalized.

COPSINs, which include seven institutes, received a total increase of $5.4 million this year, the feds announced last week. MSO applications are still being worked through. The federal government has committed a total of $112 million in increased sport-support funding for this year.

NSOs learned of their exact supplemental funding earlier in October — around two weeks before Thursday's announcement — and Paulins said the general response was “gratefulness” and “happiness.”

“I think everybody has been — as was noted in the Future of Sport Commission [report] — maybe underfunded, running really lean, not being able to do everything that they could do. And I think that this funding, especially in this fiscal, really just was the ability to bring people up to, OK, now I've got the funding. What can I actually now do of things that maybe we wanted to, but just didn't have the capacity or the funds to be able to make them happen?” Paulins said.

• 'Fragmented, inconsistent, unsafe': Commission calls for sweeping change to sport in Canada

An exact breakdown of the supplemental funding is expected to be made public later Thursday.

“To understand and know the amount is really helpful for all of the sports that I've spoken to, especially likely some of the smaller ones that really were in need of some support. And I think that this is significant,” Paulins said, adding she expected the process of receiving the funds to be relatively seamless.

The funding bump for NSOs is part of the government's $1 billion investment in sports, also covering athletes directly ($43 million), hosting events ($50 million) and infrastructure through the Build Communities Strong Fund.

Calgary's speed skating oval is one of a number of facilities receiving funding for upgrades. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

New national training centres for Canada Basketball and Canada Soccer have been financially backed by the federal government to varying degrees, while money was also directed toward the rehab of Calgary’s Olympic speed skating oval, a Canada Snowboard national training centre and a national alpine centre.

• Canadian basketball scores new state-of-the-art home at Humber with $100-million government backing

• Canada Soccer receiving $9.8M from Ottawa for national training centre project

Paulins said Swimming Canada’s application focused on small goals that could be accomplished in this fiscal year like updating training material for officials, marketing for a participation campaign called Stronger in the Water and a pilot grassroots project in Ontario that could be expanded to other provinces in coming years.

“I didn't get everything we asked for, but I didn't expect I'd get everything. But I think what we did ask for and have received from the base amount will allow us to do what I had hoped we'd be able to do for this fiscal,” Paulins said. 

“Also understanding that when we get into the 2027-28 application process, my ask will go way up because I'll have the runway and the ability to work with the provinces and look at areas in which we can partner, especially in that participation space. And I think there's a lot of great potential there.”

Adam Van Koeverden, the federal Secretary of State for Sport, has organized a national sport summit in Ottawa from Nov. 9-10, where sport leaders will come together to discuss how to continue to move the industry forward.