FBC


Happenings UPFRONT


8 Happenings | 12 Conference | 14 Q&A 16 Staffing | 18 What’s New


to promote health and fitness for their citizens. Last year, FIC saw great potential in


this initiative and got involved by en- couraging fitness facilities to waive their drop-in fees on the first Saturday of June each year. Over 1,000 clubs participat- ed, and a number of them registered on Gympass.ca. Participating clubs were highlight-


ed in their local media, and a social me- dia campaign with the hashtag #NHFD trended on Twitter and Instagram for the day. “This is a wonderful event to show-


Fitness Clubs Celebrated National Health and Fitness Day


increase Canadians’ participation in fit- ness and sports activities, to contribute to good health and to help tackle rising healthcare costs.


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itness Industry Council of Canada (FIC) hosted National Health and Fitness Day (NHFD) on June 7. NHFD is an initiative created to


MP John Weston initiated NHFD in the


fall of 2012 by working with his colleagues in the House of Commons. By 2013, Senator Nancy Greene Raine began to in- volve 100 Canadian senators and intro- duced that bill to create NHFD. Legislators are encouraged to support their local may- ors and councillors by proclaiming a day


case the benefits of exercise in a time where physical participation rates have dropped. FIC has taken leadership in NHFD and provided a platform for less- active Canadians to get involved in a stress-free environment,” says FIC’s presi- dent, David Hardy. “In turn, we hope to encourage enough people to reach a public health benefit by getting more Canadians more active, more often.” “By working together from sea to sea to


sea, with the public and the private sec- tors, we can make Canada the fittest na- tion in the world,” says Weston. We hope that the fitness industry will


come together once again next year to make 2015 an even bigger success.


One in four Canadians obese, but rate is slowing CANADA’S OBESITY RATE KEEPS CLIMBING


operation and Development (OECD) details the current scale of the obesity epidemic and makes a compelling case for policy action to prevent the health, economic and social consequences of obesity.


A


HERE ARE SOME KEY POINTS FROM THE REPORT: • The obesity epidemic con- tinues to spread, and no OECD country has seen a reversal of trends since the epidemic began.


8 Fitness Business Canada July/August 2014


recent global report from the Organization for Economic Co-


• More than one in three adults in Mexico, New Zealand and the United States, and more than one in four in Australia, Canada, Chile and Hungary are obese. In contrast, rates are just 2 to 4% of adults in Asian countries.


• Obesity rates have been in- creasing at a slower pace in the past five years than previ- ously seen. Overweight and obesity rates have almost sta- bilized in Italy, England and the United States. They have grown modestly in Canada, Korea and


Spain, in the past 10 years.


• France is the only country where overweight rates have increased more than projected in 2010.


• In Mexico and the United States, the countries with the highest rates of obesity, obe- sity has spread fastest among people with more education in recent years.


• A growing number of coun- tries have adopted poli- cies to prevent obesity from


spreading further. Mexico has launched one of the most com- prehensive government strat- egies to address the problem, including awareness-raising, health care, regulatory and fis- cal measures. Iceland, Chile, Turkey and Norway, for exam- ple, have passed laws banning or restricting advertising in programs aimed at children.


For the full OECD report, “Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat,” visit www.oecd.org/health/ fitnotfat.


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