By David Owen
September 23 – The overall budget of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is set to rise to $46.6 million by 2022. This will represent an increase of around 55% in the space of seven years.
WADA – which is jointly funded by, on the one hand, public authorities around the world and, on the other, the International Olympic Committee – has long argued for an increase in funding on grounds both of expanding responsibilities and the need to wage the fight against doping as effectively as possible.
The scale of the increase was disclosed in a budget plan contained in WADA’s newly-published 2018 annual report.
The plan also revealed that Canadian Government funding for the agency is set to jump by nearly 60% in 2021.
The funding is provided by different levels of Canadian government, subject to the agency maintaining its permanent operational headquarters in Montreal and abiding by a minimum staff level commitment.
As part of a new hosting agreement, which extends the body’s residence in the city through to 2031, WADA has confirmed that “the federal, provincial and municipal governments have committed to an increase of close to C$1 million annually (indexed) starting in 2021”.
The budget plan puts the 2021 contribution by Montréal International, a corporation which pays the government grants as one combined amount, at $2.44 million. This compares with a planned $1.54 million in 2020.
The annual report reveals that WADA registered a surplus of just over $3 million in 2018, up from $2.57 million the previous year.
The extended hosting agreement was signed in September 2018 by WADA President Sir Craig Reedie, director general Olivier Niggli and Hubert Bolduc, President of Montréal International.
Sir Craig told a cocktail party last May that the organisation was “very pleased with this clear commitment of long-term support” from the Governments of Canada, Quebec and the City of Montreal.
The event took place on the 21st floor of the hotel which hosted one of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Bed-ins for Peace in 1969.
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