About a year ago, Health Minister Iris Evans told us that our provincial government wants us to get fit. This, she explained, will reduce health care costs and could even lead to lower taxes.
To show us just how serious the government was about it, 30 minutes of daily physical activity was immediately added to school timetables. There was even talk of allowing Albertans to claim all or part of their fitness club dues against their taxes.
Everybody was abuzz. Energized. Ready to go. Then silence.
The only thing fitness-related we are taking about these days is how we far we can carry the enormous burden that the price of oil is placing upon our provincial shoulders.
Improving fitness to lower health care costs doesn't appear to be on the government's radar anymore.
That's not good. So here are a few things that the government of Alberta can do to help ensure that some of us are in better shape next year than we are this year.
Step one. Mandate school gymnasiums for fitness activities.
Right now it's nearly impossible to book a suitable school gymnasium in most communities for any kind of new organized fitness activity outside of school hours.
The City of Calgary's "right to use" policy ensures that any group who has booked a gymnasium for the past five years has right of first refusal on booking the same gymnasium at the same time every year.
In other words, craft fairs, book sales, cubs and brownies and all kinds of non-fitness related activities established many years ago effectively prevent the establishment of new leagues for running, basketball, badminton and other such activities today.
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This has to change. If the government is serious about getting us off of our couches and out of our SUVs, then our bureaucrats must make the gymnasiums in our schools available for activities that are primarily fitness related.
A scout troop can meet in a church basement but a volleyball league needs a gym. Craft fairs need tables and a community hall to put them in; basketball leagues need hoops and hardwood floors.
Step Two. Mandate family oriented fitness priorities.
Let's face it. Most of us lost our high school physiques sometime during that 20-year period in which we were having and raising children.
That's when it happens for most people. That's when weight gain becomes an issue for the first time.
If you wonder why, just try to find an organized fitness activity within walking or cycling distance of your house that includes your whole family
At the Southland Leisure Centre, a city-owned facility close to my home, children are not allowed in the fitness room.
At Acadia Pool, a little further east, parents sit watching their children's swimming lessons from the waiting room while the fitness centre sits unused a dozen metres away.
Neither of these should be acceptable. Parents who visit our fitness facilities should not be forced to leave their children at home; parents who bring their kids to lessons should not be sent home or shuffled onto the benches in waiting rooms.
When parents phone to book their kids into lessons or activities, they should be encouraged to super-size their fitness order and get access to the weight room or an aerobics program for a minimal extra fee.
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Conversely, public fitness facilities must try harder to make themselves attractive to parents with small children -- perhaps by creating something for kids to do while their parents work out, again for a small additional fee.
Governments at all levels can help by giving family friendly facilities and organizations top priority when it comes to grants and lottery funds. They can also help by instructing their bureaucrats to emphasize the creation of family fitness opportunities.
And finally, let's consider investing some of our enormous oil windfall into community fitness infrastructure. With a multi-billion dollar surplus, there is no reason why pools, tennis courts, tracks and sports fields all over Calgary should be falling apart before our eyes.
The provincial government's Community Facility Enhancement Program should be expanded temporarily in order to help our schools, clubs, churches and community associations catch up on basic fitness infrastructure maintenance.
Require sound planning, require matching volunteer labour and require the presence of active programs, of course, but make the money available now -- while we still have it -- so that Calgarians can once again access quality fitness and leisure facilities right in their own communities.
Then we'll see if improved fitness leads to lower health care costs and lower taxes in Alberta.
© Brent Johner. Originally published in the Calgary Herald, September 2005. Reprint rights available.
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