Jonathan Goldbloom, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hockey Canada:

As Canadians, hockey plays a central role in our daily lives.

It gives us something to talk about with our family, friends and colleagues, brings our communities together when Canada plays on the international stage and no matter your skill level, when you are on the ice, hockey allows us to experience the One of the greatest joys in life: having fun.

Hockey matters.

Our members, staff, participants, parents, partners, government representatives and all other sport stakeholders want hockey to succeed and for Hockey Canada to be the pride of all Canadians.

When I applied as a potential candidate for the transitional board of directors last fall, I was motivated by optimism that Hockey Canada will soon once again be seen as a leader in hockey and sport, not only in our country but all over the world.

Over the past year, our transition council has made important and significant progress in leadership renewal, sports safety, good governance, and financial transparency and accountability.

Although our time together only lasted 11 months, it laid the foundation for the work we will do together to bring about positive change that will benefit our organization, our members, hockey and the sport in general.

We can’t do this without each and every one of you.

Last week we held our winter convention and annual meeting in Montreal, where the Hockey Canada Board of Directors election took place.

I was grateful to be named Chair of the Board and to be joined by Grant Borbridge and Marian Jacko, who have been wonderful teammates on the Transition Board, as well as our six new Directors: Gillian Apps , Amanda Fowler, Corey Hirsch, Kristi Miller. , Krista Outhwaite and Geoffrey Wong.

We are excited to get to work as a team and help you in any way we can throughout our time together.

Thanks to the leadership of Katherine Henderson, Pat McLaughlin and the rest of the Hockey Canada staff, we are fortunate to have a committed and passionate group who are ready to take our sport to new heights.

And let’s not forget to have fun along the way, because that’s what hockey is.

Katherine Henderson, President and CEO of Hockey Canada:

In September, I joined Hockey Canada as a proud Canadian, a leader in the sport and a lifelong hockey fan.

I was excited to work with our passionate Board of Directors, staff, members and partners to provide all Canadians with personal hockey experiences that suit them and to ensure that hockey in our country embodies safety, excellence and sport for all.

After meeting and learning from many of you over the past three months, I feel even more excited about what the future holds. The future we create together.

At the Winter Conference, we had honest and important discussions with our members on a number of topics, including increased alignment, our collective efforts to better combat abuse in hockey, this year’s promising registration data season and upcoming initiatives at the national and member levels.

I have shared with the membership and our outgoing Board of Directors the recurring themes that have been clearly expressed throughout my early conversations with our stakeholders at all levels of the game, and I want to describe them for you from our perspective :

• We are Canadians and we want excellence in hockey;
• The right to play hockey must become our way of thinking;
• Our participants, including players, coaches, officials, volunteers and administrators, are there to be served;
• Having an athlete-centered philosophy is essential as the game continues to grow and evolve;
• We have made significant investments in sports safety, but to achieve this and more, we need to identify our business priorities and be more efficient;
• Improve our governance by doing it better with greater impact and less risk;
• Exceptional people, including those who keep hockey alive at the local level, will make the difference.

Although there is still work to be done, we are certainly on the right track.

I am confident that with governance that accelerates what we want to do, attracting new people to the sport, focusing on our business priorities, continuing to be aligned with our members and empowering the great people we we have within our organization, the opportunities for hockey in the future are truly limitless.

As you know, Jonathan Goldbloom was named chair of the board on Saturday after members elected him, along with Gillian Apps, Grant Borbridge, Amanda Fowler, Corey Hirsch, Marian Jacko, Kristi Miller, Krista Outhwaite and Geoffrey Wong.

Jonathan’s passion for hockey is contagious and I am excited to work with him and the other administrators to help us work towards happy, safe and healthy hockey for all.

To each of you, thank you for the ideas, knowledge and support you have given me during my first three months at Hockey Canada, and for your tireless efforts to get more hockey done.

I’m so happy to be on this journey with you – let’s continue it.

Carp Futurum.