How Sport Aligns with the 2025 G7 Meeting Priorities

The Group of Seven (G7) is an informal grouping of 7 of the world’s advanced economies and the European Union. Its members meet annually at the G7 Summit to discuss global economic and geopolitical issues. The Leaders’ Summit is currently taking place in Kananaskis under Canada’s Presidency.

The G7 is very present in my city, Calgary, which is right down the road from Kananaskis. I doubt that sport is on the mind of many world leaders who are here right now and how sport can contribute to achieving the priorities, so, I wanted to take the time and discuss how sport can contribute to some of the key outcomes under the priorities. I have zeroed in on three specific outcomes in this article. For a full list of the priorities see here.

The first priority listed is protecting our communities and the world, with a key outcome to work to promote international peace and security. This is a direct outcome of sport for development and peace. To quote the IOC: “Sport is a powerful means to build bridges, bring people together and shape peace; it builds friendships and draws lines of respect across borders.”

Organisations and initiatives like PeacePlayers, and Fight for Peace use sport to help create peace from the ground up in our communities. These foster understanding and acceptance across cultural, religious, and language barriers where they exist.

International sport events reinforce the ideals of peace through things like the Olympic Truce. The "Olympic Truce," or "Ekecheiria," originated in Ancient Greece during the ninth century BC when three kings—Iphitos of Elis, Cleisthenes of Pisa, and Lycurgus of Sparta—signed a treaty to ensure safe participation in the Olympic Games for athletes and spectators from these Greek city-states. Despite being in constant conflict with one another, this agreement allowed peace for the duration of the Games.

In light of the modern political landscape, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) revived the Olympic Truce in the 1990s. Their goal was to safeguard the interests of athletes and the spirit of sport, while leveraging the power of the Games to foster peace, dialogue, and reconciliation on a global scale.

Another key outcome under the promoting international peace and security priority is fighting transnational crime. This will require preventative programmes in place that stop young people from entering crime in the first place. 

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recognized the power of sport to help prevent crime as part of its commitment to advancing the Doha Declaration when they launched a global initiative focused on youth crime prevention that uses the power of sport to promote peace. The initiative is designed to encourage sports and related activities as a means to prevent crime and build resilience among at-risk youth. A key objective is to develop life skills of young people, helping to reduce risk factors and enhance protective factors related to crime, violence, and drug use. By raising awareness of the consequences of crime and substance abuse, and by fostering essential life skills, the initiative aims to positively influence the behaviors and attitudes of vulnerable youth, preventing anti-social and high-risk actions.

The final priority for the G7 that we will explore is securing the partnerships of the future and the key outcome of creating higher paying jobs for citizens. 

It is vital that not only do we create higher paying jobs for citizens, but that we create good jobs with high labour standards and create meaningful work for citizens. We’ve explored the importance of sport and recreation in previous articles, but that is very important for us to remember as we mould the economy of the future. As AI capabilities enhance, we have to ensure that there is still a place for human activity. I believe that this leaves a big door open for the sport and recreation sector.

The resource sector is not going to create more jobs. The jobs in the oil and gas sector have remained relatively constant over the last 15 years or so, this is despite the fact that Canada is producing a record amount of oil. If increased production led to more jobs, we would have an increase in jobs in the oil and gas sector. Due to technological advancement, it requires less people to produce more oil.

As seen in the Protect Our Winters analysis on the economic impact of the outdoor recreation sector: in Canada there are 1.1 million jobs in the outdoor recreation sector, more than forestry with 830,000 jobs, agriculture with 569,000 jobs, oil and gas with 558,000 jobs and fisheries with 298,000 jobs. 

The sport and recreation sector also creates $101.6 billion in economic impact, only slightly behind oil and gas at $139.2. Billion.

The economic impact of the sport and recreation sector is spread out more evenly and creates more jobs per dollar (0.010) than that of the oil and gas sector (0.0040). 

Let’s focus on creating meaningful, well-paying employment that enhances our communities and our lives and not simply focusing on resource extraction.

Let’s hope that the G7 Leaders and other world leaders invited to these meetings recognize the power that sport has to contribute to their objectives in fostering a more secure and peaceful future for citizens all over the world.