Athletes of the North Shore private sports

Photo courtesy
Mason Buckle, 15, is studying at the école Mgr Scheffer of Blanc-Sablon. He has won the gold last week in the local competition cross-country, but may not participate in the regional race due to a lack of funds.

Frederick Jolicoeur Tétreault

Thursday, 12 October 2017 20:45

UPDATE
Thursday, 12 October 2017 20:47

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SEVEN-ISLANDS | young athletes from the North Shore will no longer be able to go to regional competitions, lack of money, as they have to take the airplane to travel.

A large part of la Basse-Côte-Nord is isolated as the route 138 is still not complete. Each year, young people who do sports as a student in the schools of a dozen municipalities, located between Blanc-Sablon and Kegaska, must take the plane to Sept-Îles or Baie-Comeau to participate in regional competitions.

Each year, it costs between $ 100,000 and $ 150,000 for charter aircraft.

Several departments and agencies of the Côte-Nord financed, until this year, the movement of the athletes, but the agreement has still not been renewed for the year 2017-2018.

To the new school year in September, there were only 54 000 $ the budgetary envelope.

Parents are angry and in need of reinvestment to allow their children to face the rest of the region.

“It is easy for a young regions that are less remote than go to the sporting activities by road. It is different for us, with a cost of air ticket is too high “, one can read in the letter, co-signed by parents Harold Dunn, Dean Buckel, Erica Joncas and Joselyne Roberts.

Discouragement

The coaches of the region have therefore had to consult in order to select which disciplines would be able to take advantage of the money available to cover the travel.

“With the budget and costs, we do not have the choice to prioritize certain disciplines. A single output can cost from 20 000 $ to 30 000 $, ” says the director of the Commission scolaire du Littoral, Lucy de Mendoça.

Parents have called the situation ” a real injustice “. “Me, I have to tell my child that because we decided to live in Lower North Shore, she can’t go to the regional’, testified Érika Joncas, whose daughter practice the cross-country.

The children are also beginning to question the choices of their parents to make their life in the Basse-Côte-Nord. “Our young people ask us why we stay here. Inevitably, the question repeats incessantly in our head and we wonder we why, ” said Ms. Joncas.

Budget missing

Since 2008, the regional unit Loisir et Sport Côte-Nord and the former regional conference of elected officers (CRE), have managed to land two agreements that are specific to a respective value of 641 000 $ 483 000 $. Concerning the possibility of a new agreement, the DG confirms that talks are already underway.

For its part, the Commission scolaire du Littoral intends to contribute for the first time to the fund if a new agreement had to be concluded soon.