Halifax councillor pitches singular membership for publicly owned fitness centres

The Halifax Regional Municipality is exploring the idea of creating one membership to cover all of its recreational facilities.

HALIFAX — There is a new push to make healthier and more active lifestyles easier to access in Halifax.

Publicly owned recreation and fitness centres are each managed independently in the city.

Members are restricted to just one gym and can’t use other city operated facilities. Halifax Regional Councillor, Sam Austin, wants to implement a new policy: one membership to allow access to all facilities.

“It could be as simple as having a membership at one facility that gives you reduced cost access at another,” said Austin. “Or it could be one membership card for every place you go.”

This idea has already been implemented in other Canadian cities. Toronto offers an all-access membership that allows use of every public fitness and recreational centre.

If a one-membership concept was implemented in Halifax, Austin says it would promote an overall higher level of accessibility.

“There are programs that are full and trying to get swimming lessons is a challenge,” said Austin. “But there is space and capacity in our facilities, and we might get more usage if we made them easier to access.”

Members of the city-owned Dartmouth Zatzman Sportsplex fitness centre like the idea. “There are different opportunities at different gyms and sometimes it’s a good mixture, because if you go to a different gym, it makes you work a bit harder,” said Donnie Malcolm.

“If you can get people to work out at a reasonable price and the flexibility to go anywhere in town, it is a win,” added Peter Beardsall.

According to gym owner and instructor Devin Sherrington, a move like this could remove restrictions and barriers that are crucial when it comes to people pursuing a healthier way of life.

“The most important thing we can do is make fitness accessible and easy for people,” said Sherrington. “When more barriers are up, the more problems we have and the less healthy a society we have.”

As Austin pointed out, one membership for multiple facilities is a practice that has long been in place for private gyms. He wants the city to make this change soon, and he believes it could enhance the business model and viability of these facilities.

“If we have one membership model, we are better able to coordinate programming for folks who can’t pay regular prices,” said Austin, who added that affordable fitness is a pathway to getting the most use of public facilities.