National Health & Fitness Day 2019
Fitness Industry Council of Canada Presents
National Health and Fitness Day… and Key Meetings with Members of Parliament
Fitness Industry Council of Canada (FIC) is your non-profit, trade association that strives to move the industry forward. Our goal is to unite the fitness industry by engaging in dialogue with all – from private clubs to non-profit facilities, certification agencies, educational institutions, to suppliers – we believe all have a very vital role to play.
FIC will be promoting and encouraging a healthy lifestyle as we celebrate National Health and Fitness Day on June 1st, as well as meeting with members of parliament to lobby for our main initiatives on behalf of the fitness industry.
FIC works to fulfil a triple A approach:
Awareness – We ensure that health club operators, suppliers, and others are aware of any legislation or external impacts to their business. This ranges from music tariffs to legislation on inclusiveness to human resources. We continue to research not only what is happening in Canada, but also around the world. We present our findings each year at both the IHRSA convention and canfitpro’s World Fitness Expo.
Advocacy – We advocate on behalf of the fitness industry to the government and other organizations to ensure legislation, tariffs, and other external forces impacting the industry are kept reasonable. Most recently, we engaged with the music licensing groups, SOCAN and Re:Sound, to ensure a fair and sustainable tariff. Together, with the support of clubs from across the country, we were able to reach agreements.
This year we have a number of exciting initiatives that we are advocating on. And together, we take ACTION.
ACTION – This is going to be a very exciting year for our industry. We are pleased to announce that we have created a joint committee from various sectors of the fitness and medical industries to move forward synergistically.
In May of this year, we will be heading to Ottawa to meet with members of parliament to discuss a number of important topics that will benefit thousands of Canadians. These include:
- Obtaining long term, sustainable funding for the Prescription to Get Active program. Prescription to Get Active is a turn-key program where doctors are prescribing physical activity. Local recreation providers receive these prescriptions and offer a trial membership along with an induction process. The objective is to create lasting behaviour change in adopting a healthy and active lifestyle. Exercise is Medicine Canada (EIMC) is a proud partner with Prescription to Get Active. Our goal is to ensure that EIMC can continue to offer leading research on the benefits of exercise and how this prescription will help thousands of people and save our health care system millions of dollars annually.
- Ensuring that the Canadian Revenue Agency recognizes registered fitness professionals as health care providers. Our industry is made up of passionate professionals from a number of different backgrounds. A central registry recognizing those who are committed to their profession and maintain their certification standards will ensure the public (and prescribing physicians) have confidence in our industry. By having federal government recognition, we believe many provinces and insurance providers will follow suit.
- We are also working with UFIT (Universal Fitness, Innovation and Transformation) along with canfitpro and a number of certification agencies and educational institutions to create a curriculum to assist fitness professionals to work with people with disabilities. People with disabilities are three-times likely to be inactive as other Canadians. We hope to obtain funding to assist with this curriculum creation.
On June 1, 2019, FIC is hosting Fitness Through the Ages for National Health and Fitness Day (NHFD). This year, we will be hosting an event in Ottawa close to Parliament Hill. We have partnered with canfitpro, Goodlife Fitness, YMCA, Ottawa Redblacks, and Indigenous Sport and Wellness Ontario to provide programming from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. This day will support the initiatives we pursue and promote public health and wellness for all ages and abilities.
As the activity schedule gets finalized, make sure to check-in with canfitpro’s social media feeds throughout the month of May for updates.
For NHFD, clubs across Canada will be waiving their drop-in fees and opening their doors free on June 1st. Gympass.ca provides a list of clubs offering free drop-ins. Also, for NHFD, Trainer + has built an app where clubs can upload their own branded workout of the day for participants. This is a day to promote fitness and healthy living to all Canadians.
Thank you to all of you who continue to make our industry amazing. If you would like to support our industry association, please reach out to us:
Fitness Industry Council of Canada
13543 St. Albert Trail, 2nd floor, Edmonton Alberta, T5L 5E7
President – Scott Wildeman
Executive Director – Trisha Sarker
tsarker@ficdn.ca
w.ficdn.ca
https://www.facebook.com/FitnessIndustryCanada
https://www.instagram.com/ficdn/
https://twitter.com/ficdn
To celebrate National Health and Fitness Day, we have partnered with GoodLife Fitness to provide you with a 14 day FREE TRIAL!
