Hockey Canada was incorporated in 1968, and the took over management of the national team from the Canadian Hockey Foundation in 1969. Bauer was appointed a member of the board of directors, which decided at its first meeting to make the eligibility of professionals at the World Championships its priority for improving the national team. Hockey Canada successfully secured funding from the Government of Canada for the national team to travel to the 1969 Ice Hockey World Championships in Sweden. Bauer's team was inexperienced internationally, and lost twice each to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Sweden, and place fourth overall.