Sports facilities in St. John's not up to snuff to host Canada Games before 2025

Planning to get the facilities ready to host the 2025 Canada Games in St. John's needs to start immediately, according to athletes and members of a task force that studied games preparation.

"We're badly serviced for sports facilities at every level," said Pat Parfrey, who helped write a report called Medals Matter, on how to enhance this province's athletic performance at the games.

He said aquatics and track and field are two pressing priorities.

The province was scheduled to host the 2021 summer games, but announced Friday it will now host the games in 2025, after switching dates with Ontario.

"I think it was a wise decision," said  Rod Snow, a former pro rugby player who also worked on the Medals Matter report. 

"There's no doubt there's a lot of disapointed people at the provincial level and the municipal level.  But given the fact that 2021 is really just around the corner when you conside the number of upgrades and infrastructure we have to put in place, I think it's a wise decision," said Snow.

Performance payoff

Basketball player Carl English was a Canada Games athlete when he was 16 years old, and told CBC's Here and Now that the experience helped put him on the path to playing pro.

"I would say it was a pivotal point for me and a turning point, because I was so young, but then you get the exposure.  So people start knowing about you, people start seeing you," said English.

"And you're playing against the best talent around.  It's one thing to be the best in your own province, but if you can be the best in Canada, it opens up a lot more doors."

English said things have changed since he competed.

"If you don't have that top notch training in those top notch facilities, you're gonna get left behind," said English.

"I grew up playing on the road.  That can only take you so far. That's why I had to leave Newfoundland."

​A tight budget

Parfrey said to date, no work to create new sporting infrastructure has taken place.

"It's going to need more than four years to create an appropriate facility for a city of our size to host the Canada Games," he said.

"I think three years ago was the time to start, when we actually had more money, and we had the need at that time," 

Parfrey said for aquatics facilities alone, either $10 million needs to be spent to upgrade the Aquarena in St. John's, or $50 million budgeted to build an entirely new complex, so athletes can train propery.

Medals matter

The Medals Matter task force submitted its report in Dec. 2014. The province has committed $480,000 to Sport Newfoundland and Labrador towards acting on the recommendations.

"We need to focus on winning medals. and being 10th all the time is not appropriate, particularly if we're going to host the games," said Parfrey.

At the last summer games in 2013, Newfoundland and Labrador won two medals — nether of them gold.