Lots of plans for provincial dollars in the works

Officials from the Aboriginal Sport and Wellness Council of Ontario are thrilled with the multi-million dollar funding they have received from the provincial government. 

At a news conference on May 15 it was announced that the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport has reached a two-year $3.6 million partnership with ASWCO. 

The funding agreement will allow the Aboriginal organization to invest in the wellbeing and health of Aboriginal youth across Ontario through a number of different ventures.

Wes Marsden, ASWCO’s operations and communications co-ordinator, knew that some sort of funding was forthcoming. 

“We’ve been working with them for quite some time,” he said of provincial officials.

“It’s been in the works since last year.”

Yet Marsden said he was surprised to hear how much money the provincial government was handing over. 

“In a sense we would have been happy with whatever (amount),” he said.

“We’re very happy now with what we got. I think everybody is pleasantly surprised with how much it was.”

Marsden added ASWCO officials are hoping to soon announce additional funding partnerships with various corporations. 

The provincial government funding will allow ASWCO to run a number of different tournaments for Aboriginal athletes. 

For starters, this includes a basketball tournament featuring 10 youth teams from across the province, which was held May 15 to 17 at the Mnjikaning Arena and Sports Ki (MASK) Recreation Centre on the Rama First Nation.

The news conference announcing ASWCO’s funding from the provincial government was held just prior to the start of the basketball tournament. 

This year’s inaugural event was called an invitational tournament. Marsden is hoping the tourney eventually becomes the provincial Aboriginal championship. 

“We hope to turn it into that,” he said.

“We felt we didn’t have enough teams this year to call it the Ontario championships.”

This year’s event featured six boys’ teams and four girls’ clubs. Participants were ages 13 to 18 years old. 

ASWCO will also be running a youth soccer tournament in Sudbury in July. 

“And we’re going to look at whether to have a volleyball tournament and lacrosse is also on the radar,” Marsden said. 

There’s a chance ASWCO might also schedule a hockey tournament.

“We’re not sure if we have identified there is a need for that,” Marsden added. 

ASWCO already organizes provincial teams

– female and male

– that annually compete at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships (NAHC). 

ASWCO will also have a booth at the Aboriginal pavilion at this summer’s Pan American Games in Toronto. Marsden is hoping this will generate a considerable interest. 

“We’re trying to raise awareness of who we are,” he said. “And we’re trying to become players in the Aboriginal sports scene in Ontario.”

The provincial funding will also help ASWCO with several other ventures.

For example, ASCWO is co-ordinating a June 6 event at Toronto’s Humber College featuring Canadian Olympic boxer Mary Spencer, who is Ojibwe. The event, called Step It Up, is geared toward Aboriginals ages 16 to 24, who are considering some post-secondary school education.

Spencer, who represented Canada at the 2012 London Olympics where women’s boxing made its Olympic debut, will be the keynote speaker at the event. 

“It’s also a good chance for kids to get off the reserve for a day and to go and see what a school campus is all about,” he said. “A lot of times this can be intimidating for them.” 

Thanks to provincial funding, ASWCO officials have also launched a Power to Play Equipment and Leadership Program. 

This venture will see sports equipment shipped to various Aboriginal communities across the province. This will not only strengthen existing sporting programs but also assist in their sustainability. 

The program will also allow for the hiring of individuals to help with the running of various sports and recreation programs. Regional co-ordinators have already been brought on board through this program. 

Thanks in part to the recently announced funding, ASWCO will now also be able to host some major sporting competitions. 

It has already been revealed that the 2016 hockey championships will be held in Mississauga. And though it has not been officially awarded the event, Toronto, through ASWCO, is the only city that submitted a bid to host the 2017 North American Indigenous Games. 

This multi-sport competition, last staged in Regina in 2014, traditionally attracts thousands of participants from across Canada and the United States. 

“I know the end goal for us is to host the 2017 North American Indigenous Games,” Marsden said.

“There’s a big push for that going on.”