Canadian Heritage Committee on April 27th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 30 seconds.

[Steven Reed]

—that led to the creation of the Canadian Premier League. Canadian Soccer Business was a Canadian group. It made sense for us to partner with them—

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Were there no other Canadian groups that existed that could have been in on this business?

Did Mr. Montagliani make an original introduction?

[Steven Reed]

There were a number of people who were involved with the initial introduction. There were representatives from—

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Was he involved?

[Steven Reed]

Yes.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Anthony.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

I would like this guest, Mr. Reed, to be sworn under oath. I've heard enough already from Mr. Reed to....

Would the clerk mind preparing him for the oath?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes.

Clerk, will you please prepare Mr. Reed for the oath?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Michael MacPherson]

We're going to go with the solemn affirmation, since it's the easiest one to perform at distance.

Please repeat after me:

I—state your name—do solemnly, sincerely and truly affirm and declare that the evidence I shall give on this examination shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

[Steven Reed]

I, Steven Reed, do solemnly, sincerely and truly affirm and declare that the evidence I shall give on this examination shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

[The Clerk]

That's it.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mike.

Thank you, Mr. Reed.

We're going to now go to Mr. Lemire from the Bloc Québécois.

You have six minutes, Sébastien.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I almost feel like asking you if you know the Vancouver Whitecaps, but I will take this in another direction.

Given your role as a member of the board and treasurer in 2009, how aware were you of the troubling reports of a head coach and the disappearance of funds, misleading financial statements and other unethical acts within the national women's team program?

On Monday we heard, during Andrea Neil's testimony, that Canada Soccer, instead of investigating and disciplining the manager involved, promoted him and punished the coaches of the women's national team who took the initiative to report the reprehensible acts.

How much were you told about these situations and what was your involvement?

[Steven Reed]

I would have to have more specific details of the situation. I'm not aware of any embezzled funds.

This is a very serious allegation. It definitely would have been brought to our attention, and we would have acted accordingly.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you.

I want to come back to the agreement with Canadian Soccer Business. You think it is a good agreement. However, you are getting only a fixed amount. This contract does not leave room for any renegotiation. It relies only on the good will of Canadian Soccer Business. There is nothing for the women in this document. Even if Canadian Soccer Business wanted it, the rights cannot be transferred to Project 8, which could contribute to the development of a professional women's league.

How can you say that this is a good agreement? Why was there no consideration given to having a fixed amount with a percentage of all the additional sums obtained for such an amount?

[Steven Reed]

First of all, the agreement did, as I outlined in my opening remarks, provide revenue certainty for us going forward and did control costs since we could have our women's and men's national teams' games broadcast across the country at no cost to us. The revenue source that is generated from the CSB agreement supports all of the programs. It's not just men's or women's. It's all the activities that Canada Soccer undertakes.

We viewed it as being a very positive deal at a time when, to be honest, revenues were somewhat uncertain in certain areas. It did give us that comfort that going forward we would have a stable revenue source to carry on all the activities of Canada Soccer.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

I am always surprised to hear that it costs so much to broadcast the matches, especially with the increased number of specialty sports channels. Given the possibility of Canada hosting the World Cup in 2026, the success of women's team at the Olympics and the emergence of star players on the men's team, you must be keenly aware that there is a vested interest in increased funding. Soccer is one of the most played sports in Canada and the most played sport in the world.

Why not include renegotiation of the agreement from the start?

[Steven Reed]

First of all, when the negotiations commenced, we didn't have the World Cup 2026 hosting rights. Those came shortly thereafter. At the time, our men's team was not where they are today. It's a positive thing today that we can talk about them in this light. The landscape when we were carrying out the negotiations was different from what it is today.

I still say that, based on the revenue certainty and the cost controls that are there, it represents a positive agreement for all parties.

The renewal provision in the contract does allow us to commence those discussions very far in advance of the renewal date, and it's in the best interests of both parties to carry on extensive negotiations at that time. There's an 18-month clause, under which they have to exercise their renewal option, and then there's a discussion period of six months, during which both parties go over all of the details and where the contract lies at that time and then present their positions.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

It is hard to believe that after submitting your application to organize the 2026 World Cup you are not prepared to receive a positive response.

That being said, Soccer Canada told us that the new financial structure had not been sent to the Canada Revenue Agency for approval of the significant changes you wanted to make to the funding structure and the organization's activities.

Since Soccer Canada's appearance before the committee on March 30, 2023, we have also communicated with financial audit experts and they told us that an agreement of this magnitude should have been mentioned to the CRA.

Why was it not?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 30 seconds.

[Steven Reed]

I'm not sure what reference you're making to Revenue Canada. I haven't been on the board since 2020, so I would not have any knowledge of any recent communications between Canada Revenue Agency and Canada Soccer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Sébastien.

We now go to the New Democrats.

Peter Julian, you have six minutes.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Last summer and fall at this committee we saw how dysfunctional Hockey Canada is, including financially, as well as its refusal to take responsibility for the cases of abuse and sexual assault. Based on what we have been hearing for the past few weeks, I must say that Canada Soccer's dysfunction far exceeds what we saw at Hockey Canada.

I am very surprised, Mr. Reed, by the testimony that we've been hearing about Canada Soccer, the refusal to handle serious cases of sexual abuse seriously and to deal with financial matters in a responsible way.

I believe, quite frankly, that Canada Soccer is worse than Hockey Canada in many respects in dealing with these important issues.

I would like to come back to the questions that were asked by Mrs. Thomas and Mr. Housefather around the case of a sexual offender, somebody who is in prison for his sexual offences, Bob Birarda. From what I understand from your testimony, which is now under oath, you were aware of the allegations and simply lost track of where he was in the Canada Soccer system.

Is that an honest interpretation of what you've just told us?