The four organisations are set to explore ways to increase participation in their sports and the number of Canadian athletes on podiums at Nordic events. 

Each of the four sports have designated up to two representatives, along with a representative from the Canadian Olympic Committee, to sit on the Nordic Strategy Steering Committee. 

Over the next 10 months, the committee will be focused on forming and directing working groups to analyse key functional areas of each national sport organisation, including administration, participation at a grassroots level, membership, athlete development, revenue generation and governance.

"All four sports face challenges, some are unique to our individual sports, but we also see that many are shared," Biathlon Canada general manager Heather Ambery said.

"As leaders of our respective organisations, we believe we can meet many of these challenges through more cooperation and coordination.

"The Nordic strategy steering committee will explore and test the opportunities that we believe exist to make our sports stronger."

To improve Team Canada’s performance in the overall standings at the Winter Olympic Games, it must earn medals in Nordic sports, which boast 93 medals across 31 events. 

Canada’s Nordic athletes have only won six medals since the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, and none since Turin 2006. 

"Our sports represent nearly 30 per cent of the Olympic medals available so we know that if Canada wants to be a world-leading winter sport nation, we need to consistently see the Maple Leaf raised above the podium multiple times at the Nordic venue," said Nordiq Canada chair Jennifer Tomlinson.

"This Memorandum of Understanding is the first critical step taken to investigate how we might grow Nordic sports in Canada both in profile and in participation. 

"We need to have a deeper look at our development pathways, talent identification and overall high-performance programs to see how we might deliver more podium performances for Canada."