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.
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.