Hockey Canada will not collect participants' fee for 2022-23 season

CALGARY — Hockey Canada says it will not collect a participant assessment fee for the upcoming season.

Several provincial organizations had already withheld those fees — typically $3 per participant, including players, coaches, team volunteers and officials — from Hockey Canada in the wake of an ongoing scandal that has embroiled the national sports body for months.

Hockey Canada drew widespread criticism when it was revealed in May it had paid an undisclosed settlement to a woman in London, Ont., after she alleged she was sexually assaulted by eight men, including members of the 2018 men's world junior team.

Media and government investigations found that Hockey Canada had established three funds to pay for, among other things, sexual assault settlements. Those funds were financed by the $3 participant fees.

Although the federal government and most of Hockey Canada's largest corporate sponsors have cut funding to the national sports organization in the wake of those revelations, provincial bodies will still pay dues to the umbrella association.

Ontario, for example, pays $25.46 per participant to Hockey Canada, but $2.97 of that money goes to the National Equity Fund, which had been used to pay sexual misconduct settlements, including the payout related to the 2018 allegations.

Because initial invoices were already sent out, Hockey New Brunswick said it will provide a refund of $3 per participant to its minor hockey associations as well as its junior and senior teams in mid-February.

Apart from ongoing investigations related to the London incident, another police probe is underway in Halifax over an alleged group sexual assault involving members of the 2003 men's world junior team.

None of the allegations have been