'We are essential': Calls emerge to open gyms, from small Vaughan yoga studio to GoodLife Fitness

Mental health key to good living, gym owners argue as they call on people to contact their MPPs for action

Yorkregion.com
November 3, 2020
Dina Al-Shibeeb

More and more people in the fitness industry are speaking out against Ontario’s Stage 2 measures, which have left many locked up for the second time this year as the whole world continues to brace itself against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their rationale is that mind and body health and well-being are strengthened through exercise, making them direly “essential.”

“We need our yoga!” said Jennifer Cabral, owner of Yoga Loft in Vaughan. “Let us serve our communities. We are essential!”

After closing her yoga studio’s doors for the second time, Cabral said her “students were in tears and exasperated that they once again had no safe space to be in.”

“They are asking what are they going to do? This includes a university student who suffers from anxiety,” she added.

“I’m not even speaking of this from a business-owner perspective,” she clarified. “Although I have been impacted, I’m speaking to this as someone whose life work is to make people feel safe, healthy and strong --mentally, physically and spiritually.”

The yoga instructor emphasized that before the Stage 2 closure, she was already limiting numbers, not sharing equipment and allowing for physical distancing.

“We were operating at less than half capacity, and we space out our classes to allow ample time to disinfect.”

Reaching out to politicians?

Cabral said “members of our community” have begun “reaching out to politicians and community leaders and have heard nothing back.”

It’s not only affecting the small yoga studio. On Oct. 27, GoodLife Fitness sent an email to its members describing the “serious challenges” due to the global pandemic.

While the big franchise claimed it’s “doing everything” it can to “work with government and public health experts to be a part of the solution and to help advise on the decisions they are making for our industry,” it also urged its members to lobby.

“As an important contributor to the fitness industry in Ontario, you can help by sending a letter to your Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP),” GoodLife Fitness said. “This letter will serve to support the swift reopening of our closed clubs and to prevent further closures in the province.”

Michael Tibollo, MPP for Vaughan-Woodbridge, said that “protecting the health and well-being of Ontarians is our government’s top priority.” He said the government has been “guided” by “our team of world-class public health-care experts, who have advised us when and if restrictions need to be implemented.”

He added: “As a result of the growing spread of COVID-19 in Toronto, Ottawa, York and Peel regions, additional restrictions have been placed on gyms and fitness facilities based on the advice of Ontario’s chief medical officer of health.”

Tibollo, who is also Ontario’s associate minister of mental health and addictions, acknowledged that businesses are “already struggling, which is why we are working hard to make $300 million available as soon as possible to cover fixed costs.”

On Oct. 22, Dimitri Giankoulas, an owner of boutique gym in Vaughan, shared a reply from Premier Doug Ford's office asking to reopen gyms.

Giankoulas has already spoken with the Vaughan Citizen about the losses incurred due to the shutdown, during which he reduced staff from 17 to two.

On Oct. 28, Toronto Mayor John Tory said the city’s public health unit is developing a plan to safely reopen gyms when the province allows them to operate again, adding that the sport facilities will be increasingly important in the winter months.

Tory said he requested the plan as part of the city's general reopening strategy for Nov. 7, which will mark the end of a period of heightened restrictions as Toronto grapples with COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua, when asked if a similar motion in the works for Vaughan, clarified that, “From the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, I have said we are in a marathon, not a sprint.”

“We are in the second wave of this virus, and we must continue doing everything in our power to reduce the impact to our city,” he added.

“That includes following the advice of our public health experts and limiting opportunities for further transmission, which is why we recently made the decision to offer fall recreational programs virtually this year.”

In similar fashion to Stage 1 ban, recreation services are currently offering fitness equipment packages for loan to current Vaughan fitness members for the duration of the current facility closures.