Fitness club owners ask for voice in province’s pandemic reopening plan

By Mike Visser

With fitness clubs and gyms shuttered across Ontario due to the COVID-19 pandemic, industry leaders are asking for a seat at the table as the provincial government weighs reopening measures over the coming weeks and months.

“We are not epidemiologists, but we are experts at fitness and designing fitness clubs and running fitness clubs,” said Chuck Kelly, CEO of Movati Athletic, which runs a chain of workout facilities across the province.

The Ontario arm of the Fitness Industry Council of Canada claims it was not consulted in any of the guidelines that led to a partial reopening of gyms last year.

“I think that there are many people who could have helped the Science Table make a decision that was based on facts,” added Kelly.

With both indoor and outdoor fitness banned under the current stay-at-home order, club owners claim they’re losing upwards of $10,000 per month, even after government subsidies are factored in. They’re now asking to be part of building a concrete plan once health officials decide it’s safe to begin reopening the province.

“We’re not asking to be reopened today,” says Nick Corneil, the head of the Ontario Coalition of the Fitness Industry Council of Canada.

“What we are asking for is a safe reopening plan when it is possible to do so. The situation in the fitness industry is dire.”

In addition to requesting a seat at the health table, the coalition is also urging the Ontario government to follow data and scientific evidence when it comes to reopening gyms and fitness clubs. Ian Smith of Orangetheory Fitness in Fort York says the reopening restrictions that were set last year made very little sense.

“We’ve ended up with restrictions that are not viable, so you basically shouldn’t even open your doors with what those restrictions were. We’ve ended up with restrictions that don’t make the environment more safe.”

Owners are also asking for capacity limits to be increased gradually and to be set based on the size of a facility, similar to the guidelines in place at big box and grocery stores. Previous reopening rules saw capacity capped at numbers as low as 10.

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