Join the Coalition

We have a letter to various levels of government outlining our demands and the needs of our industry in this crisis. You can see our full letter here.

If you are a business or independent contractor in our industry and would like to join our coalition by adding your name to our letter fill in this form.

We are uniting to demand relief for our industry, which we built to be the social, emotional, and physical backbone for so many Canadians. A united voice will be instrumental in weathering this crisis together.

It's our responsibility now to do whatever we can to make sure we are still here when this crisis passes. Join today, and leave a comment to tell us how your practice has been affected.

Comments are included below.

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Comments
Featured Endorsements 4

endorsed 2020-06-18 06:42:51 -0400

endorsed 2020-06-04 15:34:39 -0400

endorsed via 2020-05-27 21:04:30 -0400

We are a gym that has been closed due to the Covid-19 crisis, and our landlord is not agreeing to accept the rent relief offered by the government.

endorsed 2020-05-25 20:26:27 -0400

endorsed 2020-05-24 06:41:35 -0400

I’m a personal trainer who works with mature adults and seniors. The pandemic has made a huge impact on my business. I’ve been able to pivot to online sessions for some, but many aren’t comfortable with the technology so they aren’t training.

I’ve lost 80% of my income, the government needs to get a plan to help us

endorsed 2020-05-21 18:10:24 -0400

I am a yoga instructor operating yoga classes from a home studio. Due to the pandemic, no classes can be held for the safety of my family as well as the community. However, I still need to continue to pay my insurance, license fee, certification fees, and more. I hope the government can provide some kind of subsidies for us.

endorsed 2020-05-19 22:41:09 -0400

We are a very small gym that only provides coach-led classes that was forced to shut our doors mid March due to Covid-19. We strongly feel that we provide an immensely valuable role in the local fitness community not only by improving the physical health of our members but also their mental health. With having zero income and bills still piling up we are uncertain of whether we will be able to weather this pandemic. We are hoping that boutique gyms such as ours will be given the ok to open sooner during Phase 2 of Alberta’s relaunch but who knows? Our gym is too small to qualify for the governments financial assistance programs. We are the small local gyms that are getting hardest hit by this.

endorsed 2020-05-19 20:43:13 -0400

My business has had no choice but to close its doors. We are a small and new entity in a small city. We now have $0.00 income for April May and likely June possible July. We will be reopening with backdated rent owing and no relief support to be found, not any savings are left as a new business without making s profit last year.

endorsed 2020-05-19 20:29:05 -0400

endorsed 2020-05-19 18:45:32 -0400

We have been closed with limited income since March 17th. Our only income has been with virtual classes but we have lost 75% of our revenue. To date we have managed to pay rent and utilities to avoid deferrals. We fear we will be unable to maintain through the summer without opening to some extent or seeing rental assistance.

CrossFit Metric endorsed 2020-05-19 17:42:46 -0400

Reopening with social distancing limiting our ability to scale our service. It’s a recipe for failure.

endorsed 2020-05-19 06:24:19 -0400

It has closed down completely. Online classes and programs have only had little interest. This government fail in not taking the virus seriously when it should have has had obvious consequences. I’ve never been so happy and proud to be a Canadian, however, that doesn’t mean I think the countries government is

perfect. The snow ball of everyone and everything this has touched has been devastating. This includes my business.

endorsed 2020-05-18 16:46:34 -0400

endorsed 2020-05-18 15:44:21 -0400

I had to close my studio space as it wasn’t financially viable to carry an empty space for an indefinite amount of time. Displacing myself and 5 other groups. My landlord also wasn’t offering a reprieve, even with a deferred payment there was no way I could recoup costs. We have also seen a significant decrease in participation for online offerings.

endorsed 2020-05-18 15:43:00 -0400

endorsed 2020-05-18 14:28:27 -0400

I am not teaching or training any of my clients during this time. I have 3 virtual private sessions per week. And I have had to find other virtual/online options – as this global shift that is happening in our world is absolutely affecting the future of my business!

endorsed 2020-05-15 16:40:29 -0400

I have experienced a significant downturn in business in March and April, continuing into May and the inability to offer the full range of services. To date, I have not qualified for any assistance from government, and have been struggling to keep my practice going, and to earn an income that is sustainable.

endorsed 2020-05-14 21:03:30 -0400

same as everyone else – taking the hit of covid and being on standby as they go through the phases of reopening and wondering what phase is the Fitness/Wellness/Health falls under.

Wexford Wellness Cade Inc endorsed via 2020-05-14 19:04:05 -0400

East rehab center endorsed 2020-05-14 18:57:19 -0400

endorsed via 2020-05-14 14:11:11 -0400

endorsed via 2020-05-14 13:51:01 -0400

The Centre for Sport & Recreation Medicine endorsed 2020-05-14 13:19:17 -0400

The Clinic at Christie Inc. endorsed 2020-05-11 15:35:38 -0400

I am the co-owner and chiropractor of a multidisciplinary clinic in Toronto. We recently opened our doors in December 2019. We have independent contractors that include physiotherapists, massage therapists and chiropractors. Unfortunately, as a new business, we did not qualify for CEBA loan and will not qualify for CECRA rent subsidy as our landlord will not participate. We are in need of assistance and feel we are being left behind by the liberal government. Change is urgently required for us to survive

endorsed 2020-05-11 13:55:27 -0400

endorsed 2020-05-11 13:28:17 -0400

BrassBelles endorsed 2020-05-11 12:00:03 -0400

endorsed 2020-05-07 06:20:58 -0400

endorsed 2020-05-06 11:57:38 -0400

Like everyone else we pay substantial amounts in rent and are making no income in these times. The hole is so big we are unsure how long we can sustain this lockdown.

endorsed 2020-05-05 20:14:52 -0400

We closed our doors March 17th and community is suffering. We need to keep our members healthy and strong but we’re not sure the doors will open again if this goes too much longer.

Kelly Taphouse

MOVE is a 5000sq foot boutique fitness studio exclusively for women. Due to Covid-19 we were forced to shut our doors down, immediately halting all revenue to a dead stop threatening the likelihood of our community and young business surviving. We’ve had to lay off our entire staff and grieve the separation from the hundreds of women we serve daily/weekly/yearly.

Like most small health and Wellness businesses, MOVE is family run and 100% financially self backed business. If we lose MOVE we will loose it all. If the Government doesn’t step up and give us the support and relief we need , all of the incredible work we do for women in the fitness space could fall apart. In fact, all of the good our industry does for the people of our country will fall apart. I’ve spent my entire career serving in the fitness industry and I’m not about to lose it all because this lack of support. Not for my young children, employees and community that we cherish so much.

Lyzabeth Lopez

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, we have shut the doors to our gym and frozen all members membership dues. Because of this, we have zero opportunity for income from the gym that we have leased.

Our monthly rent & government TMI (government taxes, maintenance & insurance) payments are in the tens of thousand per month. To date there is no government assistance for fitness centres or the contractors that work out of our facilities. There is no forgiveness from landlords and the insurance companies have a ’no micro-organism clause’ meaning they will not assist in any work stoppage for COVID-19.

Gym owners and being hit twice, we are making no income, but we are also expected to pay out lease payments and TMI as if we were still allowed to have our doors open.

No gym small or large will be able to withstand the mounting dept that will be created for the owners in our industry. To date that only government assistance is for us to get loans to pay the landlords and government for our closed studios. Just a few months closed could cost us anywhere from 60-100K plus (on top of making no income).

We collectively request a rent & TMI freeze for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. I am aware that the City of Brampton is already doing this, or something similar. It’s tough enough dealing with making no income (with a brand new baby) and not being able to assist the amazing trainers that work out of our facility, please don’t additionally send us into soaring dept with the only recourse being taking huge loans to pay back potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Please allow us and our contractors to come back to jobs to keep the economy healthy versus having us all shut down and taking away all the jobs that provide, as well as the important services of health that we provide to our community.

Shannon Crane

Brass Vixens Owner and Founder

Being an entrepreneur is hard. I know that and after running Brass Vixens for almost 15 years, I have been through a lot of good times and a lot of bad times. This pandemic unprecedented to say the least. I voluntarily shut down my studios before the order came from the government, I know it was the right thing to do, it is better to over react than under react. I realize this is the first pandemic for all of us (hopefully the last!!!) and though I do appreciate the government is doing what it thinks is best, there is a huge disconnect happening right now for small businesses. Our businesses MUST be shut down, I accept that. I can go without, I can pivot my business, I can go into debt personally to keep my business going, I am happy the government has a loan program in place to help small businesses like mine. What seems brutally unfair is why my business is shut down and I am at a standstill but my landlord’s businesses take no hit. Why does my government think it is ok to stop revenue from so many small businesses, give us what seems like help but our biggest stress and worry is to our landlords. Why is their business not interrupted just like the rest of us? Why is there no rent freeze? I will never recoup the money I am losing being closed. We are all making sacrifices, aren’t we? With this current program it seems like some of us are sacrificing a lot more than others. We need a rent freeze.

Caleigh Rykiss

BOLO INC Founder

This COVID-19 crisis is hard on everyone, but none more so than small businesses in the fitness, retail and hospitality spaces. We (BOLO) are a large class-based gym and social club downtown Toronto with a 7000 sq ft footprint, that also includes a full café, a salon, sauna beds, and cryotherapy. We service almost 10,000 members and have created a health and wellness hub that many members have described as their home-away-from-home. As things stand, we are unlikely to survive this crisis. We have a massive amount of rent, taxes, maintenance, insurance, software, and utility bills, for which we have no relief. As a small business owned by a young, local couple with no big financial backers or support – we have zero capacity to take on the debt that is accumulating during this government mandated shutdown. Deferral may seem like a generous offer but believe us when we say that our young business will not withstand carrying forward any interest, loans or payments in addition to the overhead we already shoulder. We can only hope that the leaders of our city, province & country will step in to ensure that our business (and businesses like ours) will still exist when this is over so that we can continue to support our community, and continue to employ our 35 young staff members, and contribute to the overall economy.