State of Youth Sport in Canada: Jumpstart 2026 Report

We inch ever closer to the release of the final report of the Future of Sport in Canada commission. In this context, Jumpstart, a national charity that was founded in 2005 that aims to help kids overcome financial and accessibility barriers to sport and recreation in an effort to provide inclusive play for kids of all abilities, released their 2026 State of Youth Sport in Canada: The Value and cost of Participation. This report provides a national snapshot of how Canadian youth experience sport, highlighting its social and well-being benefits while revealing how rising financial, logistical, and inclusion barriers limit equitable access. All important aspects of building a future of sport in Canada that is accessible to everyone.

There are several findings in this report that I found interesting and would be important to keep in mind moving forward.

The first are the reasons why parents and youth participate in sport. Below are the two charts from the report.

I think it is telling that the top benefits are similar from the youth perspective and the parent perspective. 60% of youth responded that they participate in sports so that they can make friends, and 94% of parents report a positive impact on social development and friendships. 37% of youth responded that they want to do well in school, and 83% of parents report positive impact on cognitive and academic outcomes. 36% of youth want to have more belief in themselves, and 93% of parents report positive impact on personal empowerment and confidence.

These results do give us a sense of where the participants of youth sport are at in terms of their thinking about sport, and also where parents see the biggest impacts. I do think that it is encouraging that there is a correlation, but I’m not fully aware of the options made available in the survey so the results may have been influenced in that way. For example, was there an option like “I want to excel in sport and become a high performer.” I don’t know if this would have largely changed the results of the survey, but I think that there are a lot of young people who think this way.

It appears that most of their findings on why youth do not play sports came from their report in October 2025 Jumpstart Cost and Barriers to Sports Participation Study. But I do not think there were any major surprises. 48% of people report that sports are too expensive, 24% state there is not enough time and 18% report that they believe they are not good enough to play. I will say I am slightly surprised by this 18%. I think it is low. I would assume that there are a lot more people feeling this. Sport has an air of exclusion surrounding it. The professionalisation of youth sports is focusing too much on excellence rather than the benefits of sport that youth want to get out of sports listed earlier.

According to the report, “the typical Canadian family spends approximately $1,200 annually on organized sports across all children. However, costs vary widely-the average rises to $3,064, reflecting higher spending among families with multiple children or those in competitive travel programs.” Below is a breakdown of the costs of different sports (taken from the October 2025 report).

In every category either a recreational sport or community sport program is the cheapest option, and that is usually followed by a school program. Sports Club programs and Competitive sport programs are often significantly more expensive. This tells me that we need to strengthen public institutions to offer more sport services.

While writing this I did a quick google search. Below is a comparison of three different facilities all in Calgary on their prices.

	Adult drop-in fee	Adult monthly membership
YMCA Brookfield Residential	$20.25 (non-peak hours $14.18)	$90.20
Killarney Aquatic Centre (operated by the City of Calgary)	$9.20	$70.45
MNP Community and Sport Centre	$18.25	$84
Home Lifestyle Club	$32	$230
Barry’s	$33	$305 (for 12 classes in a month)

It is interesting to me that the building that the YMCA is in, was built and is owned by the City of Calgary, but operated by a private organisation (at least they are a non-profit). 

I believe that this is the same for the MNP Community and Sport Centre. A city-owned facility operated by a non-profit. In this case though, the city has recently announced several closures of community pools in the inner city (the Beltline Aquatic and Fitness Centre has already closed and the Inglewood aquatic centre is slated to close soon) and are supposed to be replaced by an expansion at MNP Community and Sport Centre. So they are closing city run facilities, forcing people to go to the more expensive option.

Home Lifestyle Club is a local boutique fitness studio and Barry’s is a global US based boutique fitness studio.

I’m not saying that there isn’t a need for non-profit and for-profit fitness facilities. But we clearly need a public option. And I’ve only outlined the costs of an adult to go to the gym/pool, signing up for swim lessons or summer camps I would assume vary as well. Likely with city-options being the most affordable. (For-profit businesses do not offer swim lessons).

The report offers four big opportunities for sport. I agree with them all.

Remember the reasons why kids playWe need to realign youth sport with what participants value most: having fun, playing with friends, and learning new skills. When programs prioritize enjoyment and social connection over early specialization or excessive competition, they create environments where more young people feel welcome and confident to participate. 

Take better advantage of schools and community assetsSchools are one of the biggest public institutions we have. They are in every community, they are usually close by and they are often free on evenings and weekends. Using these existing assets more effectively—through shared-use agreements, after-school programs, and community-led leagues—can significantly reduce financial and logistical barriers related to facility rentals and transportation. This model also strengthens local connections and ensures that opportunities to play sport are embedded in everyday environments, rather than limited to families with the time and resources to travel. This was a large focus and identified opportunity in Canad’s Sport Policy as well. 

Innovate to tackle local barriers and create innovative partnerships to improve access and affordabilityThese are two separate recommendations in the report, but I’ve combined for simplicity. This is something that I have talked about a lot previously. Specifically in part 2 of our critical analysis on Canada’s Sport Policy 2025-2035, we talked about the need for innovation to bring down the cost and create new opportunities for sport. Two examples that I bring up often are one using tiny data centres to heat community pools to bring down the electricity costs by thousands of pounds for a local government in the UK and Copenhill, a skihill and climbing wall in Copenhagen, Denmark on the roof of a garbage incinerator. I like these examples because one is a small action that can be easily implemented and replicated, and the second because it is so big and beautiful and encourages us to think in new ways and think about how we can combine our infrastructure in better ways.

So, we can dream bigger for our sports system. Overall this report shines a small light on a small piece of a big problem. I think that there is still a lot to the problem that we need to bring into focus.