Canadians need sports venues. Is there a better way than waiting for the next Olympics or Pan Am Games?

On a Saturday in March, while Summer McIntosh was setting her second world record in the pool at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, teams of girls and boys under 11 years of age were playing in the Ontario basketball championships.

Throughout the Canadian swimming trials, where elite athletes were competing to make international teams, the facility was also hopping with other activities: city programs for families, fitness classes, badminton and pickleball; University of Toronto Scarborough student leagues, volleyball and soccer drop-ins; provincial judo and rugby training, plus national wheelchair basketball and high-performance sessions at the Canadian Sport Institute.

Two weeks ago at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, crowds cheered Olympic sprint gold medallist Kelsey Mitchell to victory at the UCI Nations Cup. That velodrome is a daily training base for elite Canadian cyclists, but also hosts nearly as many community events as cycling competitions. It includes a fitness centre with a walking track, and courts used by local basketball and volleyball clubs.

These facilities, built for the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games, are an example of what can come from hosting a major multi-sport event, and a big part of why there’s a constant stream of new proposals.

But it also raises questions about what the future holds.

Local and provincial governments are increasingly unwilling to help fund bids for Olympic, Commonwealth and Pan Am Games under cost-share terms laid out by the federal government. (Ottawa pays no more than 50 per cent of the total public share and isn’t responsible for overruns.)

And yet just a few weeks after the Hamilton proposal fell apart, Calgary, Edmonton and the Tsuut’ina Nation announced plans to explore a 2030 Commonwealth Games bid that they hope someone will agree to pay for.

Anne Merklinger — chief executive of Own the Podium, the funding arm for Canada’s high-performance sports — follows all of this closely: “Historically in Canada, the opportunity for sport to be able to access new facilities has been driven by some Games legacy. The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre is a perfect example.”

Hosting major events can also revive existing facilities.

The 2026 Olympic proposal would have revitalized aging venues from the 1988 Calgary Games. After that bid died, the sliding track and ski jumps at Canada Olympic Park closed — sending national teams into turmoil — while the speedskating oval remains in need of a major overhaul.

Two years ago, Own the Podium identified infrastructure gaps and priorities as part of its work with the 2030 Olympic pitch, and hoped it would help national sports bodies work with levels of government to secure funding for projects.

“All that information was submitted to the government of Canada, but there hasn’t been any incremental investment provided to infrastructure that is focused on sport … Each province has a different approach to infrastructure investment,” Merklinger said. “Unless there is a significant shift in federal funding priorities (bidding for events) still presents the greatest opportunity for the sector.”

Hosting multi-sport games provides a catalyst and a timeline, but also leads to other costs (such as security) and comes with the risk of overruns.

If communities can’t get what they need from hosting events, a national sports infrastructure strategy is required, sports leaders say.

As Peter Judge, chief executive of Freestyle Canada, puts it: “Either we have to dedicate a good chunk of money annually that’s going to be just for (new or upgraded infrastructure) or we have to go on a very purposeful games bidding and acquisition (mission) to achieve the same thing. One or the other has to transpire in order for us to continually have a renewal of, and expansion of, the facilities we need to service getting close to 40 million people.”

When asked about the possibility of a national strategy, Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge indicated her role is limited to major multi-sport events.

“When it comes to major games events, we recognize the importance of working with municipalities, provinces and territories to develop projects that reflect the needs of their populations for diverse, inclusive and accessible facilities,” St-Onge said in a statement.

Infrastructure Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s office did not answer the question.

In an interview last year, Tricia Smith, president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, said when it comes to infrastructure: “Games do help make it happen, but for sure it shouldn’t be the only way that Canadians have access to sport venues. We know there’s a lot of kids in Canada that don’t have access to sport, and that’s something that we hope to change.”

Olympic track cyclist Michael Foley competed before a home crowd at last month’s Nations Cup. He grew up in Milton, west of Toronto, and was a teenager when the velodrome opened for the 2015 Pan Am Games.

“I really liked sports and I was really competitive, so when I saw people racing in the velodrome I thought: I can do that,” he said, laughing.

Fast forward to the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021, where Foley helped Canada finish fifth in men’s team pursuit, Canada’s best result in that event since 1932. Mitchell also won sprint gold there, and Lauriane Genest bronze in keirin. Cycling Canada credits the Milton venue.

“If Canada wants to, as has been explicitly stated, ensure long-term success at the Olympics, Paralympics and other major games the best way to do that is to have the facilities to develop athletes,” said Kris Westwood high-performance director of Cycling Canada.

At the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, John Atkinson, high-performance director of Swimming Canada, agrees: “Facilities such as this are unbelievably valuable to the work of any nation, not just for high performance but for social issues of health and well-being. If you can get facilities like this up, people will use them.”

Kerry Gillespie is a Toronto-based sports reporter for the Star. Reach her via email: kgillespie@thestar.ca