June 20, 2014 (Canmore, AB) – Cross Country Canada (CCC) held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) last weekend in Canmore amidst controversy as former president, Richard Lemoine, resigned only days before as a result of clashes with the association’s executive director, Davin MacIntosh. The essence of their dispute revolved around the role of the Board of Directors and by the end of the weekend, Jamie Coatsworth, was acclaimed to take over Lemoine’s job.

This transition follows difficult times for the Canadian camp with dismal results at Sochi 2014, a floundering women’s program and  funding slashed by 25%. Waxing problems plagued the team in Sochi and only Alex Harvey had notable results this season as Devon Kershaw struggled to deliver only one podium performance at the Tour de Ski. In short, things seem to have been going downhill for the team since their heady days of 14 medals in 2011/12 and Kershaw’s record-setting second place overall in the men’s World Cup ranking.

The end of this season also marks the beginning of a new quadrennial, and amidst rumours of big changes pending on the National team, there were leaked stories including Harvey suggesting he may go it alone. In early May it was finally announced that Head Coach Justin Wadsworth would assume a new role as team leader and accomplished Norwegian skier and coach, Tor-Arne Hetland, had been hired to manage affairs in Europe. Wadsworth’s new role also includes aligning all National Team Development Centres with the National team’s program to create an improved development pipeline and better results overall.

We caught up with Lemoine, who attended CCC’s AGM, explaining that he was there to “protect his reputation” and is still going to be very much involved in the sport [as a voting member]. “I am a proponent of running CCC like a business. We had problems with our waxing in Sochi – we have hired a new wax specialist but it appears that we are still keeping the same guy from Sochi. In my opinion, CCC has a culture of complacency – yet we publicly say we have a culture of excellence. But you can only have a culture of excellence when you strive to have the best people on board. Sometimes you have to take someone out back and shoot ‘em [figuratively speaking]. You have to fire them. In a nutshell, people need to be held accountable. When you do that, it smartens everyone else up.”

Lemoine also explained that his dispute with MacIntosh was, “…a fundamental difference of understandings of what a Board is supposed to do. I have been involved with other sports, for instance with sailing, that has a voting structure where the majority of the votes are held by clubs [in terms of voting at AGMs – versus CCC where only the provincial / territorial chairs are allowed to vote]. At CCC, the power is much more concentrated – the Executive Director appears to have unfettered power. I also believe that at the end of the day the Board should be held accountable for the decisions of the organization and therefore needs to be able to influence the decisions of management.”

SkiTrax contacted MacIntosh for his comments as well but we did not hear back. Overall, Lemoine who has been heavily involved with the sport since 1999 and was president since 2012, seems philosophical about the recent events.

“It only takes 10 people to make decisions here. The executive director appealed directly to them. Maybe they decided that it is easier to change presidents than it is to change executive directors. I’m only a volunteer so I stepped aside. But I will still be involved with skiing in Canada [in other ways],” he continued.

“I actually had a good conversation with Davin at the opening of the AGM over wine and cheese. I don’t take things like this personally and I think he also understood that it’s not personal. In many ways the organization is going the right way. I am disappointed to have retired from the presidency when there was more I wanted to accomplish. But I have a real sense of optimism looking at PyeongChang 2018. Let’s move forward,” commented Lemoine who is a chartered accountant dealing with many businesses and feels that associations like CCC should be more business-like in their dealings and process.

“While I’m sorry to exit, I’m glad that Jamie Coatsworth was elected president at the AGM (on June 14) and he would have been the person I picked. Coatsworth has not been as involved as I am, but he is very well-connected,” added Lemoine.

Coatsworth is also a Toronto-area chartered accountant and thus, perhaps it is not surprising that Lemoine supported him in his bid to become president, even if the new guy sides with MacIntosh.

“I don’t want to get into the dispute. Richard and Davin had a disagreement. You can’t have two sets of hands on the steering wheel,” commented Coatsworth. “The Board members are like shareholders – they set policy in deciding what’s best for the organization. The timing of the discord [just before an election] made it easy for Richard to step down.”

So was Coatsworth the compromise candidate? “Richard told me I was his choice to replace him except that he wasn’t expecting me to take over so soon! But no, I don’t think of myself as the compromise candidate,” he continued.

Coatsworth also revealed that he is not technically the President of CCC any longer as his title changed at the AGM – he now sits as the Board’s Chairman while the Executive Director is now called the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

“What we need is a fresh look, to move forward. I’ll be working with Davin. A few years ago, CCC was much smaller and the Board then had a bigger role but we must avoid crossover. The BOD sets policy while management executes these policies. I expect to have regular communications with Davin and make him aware of what the Board wants; otherwise the Board will deal with appropriate things.

“The people on the Board will often be involved with the operational committee who may be looking for additional advice. Board members can give advice to CCC staff, but otherwise, we don’t step in [to give instructions],” added Coatsworth.

But while the question of the Board’s composition and role might now be resolved, other problems loom large.

Own the Podium (OTP) recently announced a 25% funding cut to CCC yet Lemoine expected worse. “Given the poor performance at Sochi we did not suffer as much as I had feared. OTP is looking at return on investments (ROI), something I am very familiar with as an accountant.” Lemoine points out that the cuts averaged 19% across the board for all winter sports.

He and Coatsworth seem to be singing the same tune here and the new Chairman put it this way, “We have to make do with what we’ve got. There are scarce resources. We could happily spend double our budget. We spend a great deal of time with our national development program and with coaching and do quite a bit, including supporting elite skiers. We also have to ask where our next group of World Cup skiers will be coming from and how do we get them to be competitive?

“OTP does not support the development side and Sport Canada funding is directed more towards mass events, so we are left with limited funding for development and training. There are up and comers like Jess Cockney (who debuted for Canada at Sochi 2014) who are part of the next wave from where our [evolving] WC team will emerge. OTP made cuts and we made adjustments. That did not determine the size or composition of the WC team.”

Time will tell if the Canadian camp can regain it’s former stature and develop the next talent pool for its men’s and women’s teams as the next quadrennial period to the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang, Korea, unfolds.