November 30, 2008 (Quebec City, QC) – Following the Olympic Party on Saturday evening where attendees honoured Canada’s Beijing athletes and raised $800 for athlete programs, the CCA held its Annual General Meeting on Sunday, Nov. 30. Current president, Pierre Blanchard, lead the proceedings for the final time as he is not running for a another term and will pursue his role as an international commissaire with the UCI.

Blanchard will continue to sit on the CCA Board as a past president and assist with representing Canada in the international sector. Board member John Tolkamp from BC was acclaimed as the new president for a 3-year team. There was a recommendation that the president’s term be modified to two or four years to better coincide with current Board member terms and the UCI President’s term. The following CCA positions were acclaimed or elected at the AGM.

CCA Board
– President – John Tolkamp (BC) – acclaimed (3 years)
Directors at Large
– Bill Kinash (SK) – elected (2 years)
– Daniel Manibal (QC)- elected (2 years)
– Michael Sarnecki (AB)- elected (2 years)

Program Committee Chairs
– Chair HP Committee – Luc Arsenau (NB) – acclaimed (2 years)
– Chair Event Committee – Kevin MacCuish (BC) – acclaimed (2 years)
High Performance Committee Members
– Development Team Program Rep – Dominique Perras (QC)- acclaimed (2 years)
Events Committee Members
– Road and Track Rep – Sylvain Richard (QC) – acclaimed (2 years)
Officials Committee Members
– Road and Track Rep – Louis Lalonde (QC) – acclaimed (2 years)
BMX – Representative
– Martin Sharpe (ON) – elected (2 years)

President’s Report
Blanchard spoke of great optimism for the future along with renewed trust, collaboration, and co-operation with all stakeholders despite the challenges given these economic times. Efforts to create drug-free sport continues to be at the forefront of the association’s agenda with Quebec taking a leadership role. He commented that the Genevieve Jeanson affair is ongoing but because of the legal issues he could say very little. He added that Jeanson was not alone as her entourage was involved and a tribunal has yet to rule on her former doctor, Maurice Duquette, who pleaded guilty in May 2008 to 14 charges of administering erythropoietin (EPO) to professional athletes including Jeanson.

Blanchard spoke highly of Canada’s presence on the international scene such as the FQSC’s Louis Barbeau, president of the UCI Paralympic committee, former CCA prez Brian Jolly on the UCI MTB commission, and highly regarded UCI commissaire, Josee Bedard.

Canada is also the only country to have two UCI MTB World Cups along with other UCI-level events adding to our prestige but added that we should strive to host more international events because it costs more to send athletes abroad to earn valuable UCI points.

While Canada-US relations are improving there is still work to be done and Blanchard stressed that collaboration is even more important because the Pan American Cycling Federation (COPACI) is the only continental federation that embraces two hemispheres leaving North America at a disadvantage against our South American neighbours.

While there were numerous cost-cutting measures primarily administrative to regain fiscal integrity Blanchard was happy to report that the CCA is finally in the black again showing a modest surplus. While the transition was tough he was also pleased to welcome new CCA staffers Mathieu Boucher (MTB), Nicholas Vipond (BMX/Cyclocross), and new Chief Technical Officer (CTO) Jacques Landry.

In thanking all members and PSO’s he singled out CEO Lorraine Lafreniere who recently resigned, but lead the CCA through a crucial period over the past two years building renewed camaraderie within the association, finalizing the restructuring of the organization, attaining financial stability, and overseeing the 2008 Beijing campaign while looking ahead to 2012.

Financial Report
The CCA was able to bring it’s fiscal house in order following an operating deficit of $135,000 in 2006/07 due to inaccurate revenue projections and had a small surplus of $9,400 for 07/08 based on confirmed revenues. The CCA had ambitious reserve plans for 07/08 that were not realized but pre-audit projections for 08/09 show an $81,000 surplus. The association has a year end of March 31 with a budget of just over $3 million and will continue with auditors Ounseley Hanvey Clipsham Deep LLP.

2009 and 2010 AGM
The site of the 2009 AGM will be decided in January 2009 following the review of proposals. But the 2010 AGM will be held at Mont Ste-Anne in conjunction with the 2010 MTB World Championships.

Other Business
A final report by a Task Force on the eligibility of landed immigrants to participate at National Championships was distributed, including recommendations to the CCA, which was the result of a complaint filed with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal. The Task Force conducted research of existing policies, sample opinions of Canadian cycling members, and informal surveys of other sport organizations, and recommended that citizens of other countries be allowed to compete but not be eligible for national titles, podium positions, points or medals. There was divided opinion on whether they should be eligible for prize money and the Task Force recommended further study.

Earlier on Saturday there were presentations addressing Risk Management by Toronto lawyer John Olav, and the CCA Women’s Participation Project presented by Paul Jurbala to assess options and progress in both sectors.

The CCA’s goal is to create appropriate risk management policies to reasonably mitigate problems associated with such issues in the sport. The central focus of the policy is athlete safety and to avoid insurance premium increases which the CCA was recently successful in achieving.

The CCA with financial support from Sport Canada has launched an initiative to increase women’s participation in organized cycling. According to Stats Canada nearly as many women as men participate in the cycling but in competition Canada’s women have a clear edge over men in reaching the podium, yet women make up less than 25% of CCA members. This fall the CCA conducted a national on-line survey of over 1,200 male and female cyclists to learn more about attitudes to participation, and results were presented during the AGM. Compared to men, both member and non-member women had a higher level of concern about safety on the road, and many non-member women were looking for a fun, social, less-competitive atmosphere from their cycling clubs. The CCA will work with its partner provincial associations to run pilot projects to learn more about attracting women to the sport.