An association that represents gym owners accuses the government of ignoring them as it tries to establish a dialogue to find a way to open fitness centers safely. “It’s not just answers that are not satisfactory, denounces Gabriel Hardy, spokesperson for Quebec for the Canadian Council of the Fitness Industry (CCICP). It’s really: no answer, no listening, no exchange. »
Mr. Hardy says he had meetings with the government in November 2020 and discussed the future of the industry in times of the pandemic and possible solutions. “We could see that we wouldn’t get out of this easily. [de la pandémie]. We had made proposals that went in that direction. We had plenty of avenues to help the industry get through. None of these proposals was recognized. »
The spokesperson for the CCICP, who is also the owner of the Le Chalet gym in Quebec, says that the government has since turned a deaf ear, “despite the fact that we sent letters, that we communicated regularly, not only with Public Health, but the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Labour, the Deputy Ministry of Sport”.
A letter to the Minister of Health
The lack of openness is such that the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) decided to intervene by writing a letter to the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, to draw the attention of the government. The communication sent Tuesday by e-mail would still not have obtained a response, says Francis Bérubé, senior policy analyst at the CFIB.
The fitness industry’s questions are “legitimate,” says Bérubé. He points out that industry representatives have put forward “innovative” proposals that would not have received responses. “Given the little feedback we are currently receiving, we thought it appropriate to write a joint letter. »
It was not possible to obtain a reaction from the Ministry of Health, which we contacted on Friday morning. Prime Minister François Legault said Tuesday that the reopening of gyms would happen during a “third stage”, after the reopening of restaurants and performance halls. No date has been advanced.
Until then, gym owners are at their wit’s end, whose establishments have been closed for 14 of the last 22 months, Mr. Hardy worries. The owners would have accumulated between $75,000 and $80,000 in debt on average, according to an internal survey.
Not that easy
The reopening of fitness centers is not so simple for the government, however, believes Roxane Borgès Da Silva, professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal.
“With a more contagious variant, you would expect there to be a much higher risk of having outbreaks in a gym. »
While it may seem contradictory to reopen restaurants before fitness centers, the decision can be justified, according to her. “Contamination occurs through aerosols. When we play sports, we are out of breath and we expel a lot more aerosols than when we are sitting in a restaurant. »
Mr. Hardy believes that public health experts would be able to see that fitness centers are healthy environments if they visited the facilities. “Have you come to visit our circles to look at what you see as dangerous? Where are the statistics of massive outbreaks in gyms compared to cinemas or performance halls? There is no exchange, we don’t know what they are basing themselves on, but for that, it takes a dialogue. »