New cancer and mental health findings strengthen the case for making exercise more accessible.
By Erin Phelan
Fitness Industry Council of Canada
Across Canada, the trees are putting on quite the show. A walk among the maples and birches can feel like precisely what the doctor ordered. Through PaRx, Canada’s nature prescription program, it can be.
Launched by the BC Parks Foundation in 2020, PaRx recommends two hours a week in nature, at least 20 minutes at a time. Its collaboration with Parks Canada also allows participating health professionals to prescribe Discovery Passes for Canada’s National parks, helping patients gain access those spaces.
The Fitness Industry Council of Canada applauds this approach because it gives patients a practical way to follow health advice. It also raises a question: if we recognize the value of prescribing time in nature, why aren’t we doing more to make prescribed exercise accessible?
Two headlines this week underscore the opportunity. A supervised exercise program improved quality of life for people receiving cancer immunotherapy, while a new review found that physical activity could ease depressive symptoms and improve quality of life during menopause.
These findings strengthen the case for connecting exercise recommendations with qualified support and affordable programs. Canadians need a way to put the prescription into practice.
Exercise belongs in the treatment conversation.
The Research
The cancer findings were reported ahead of the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s 2026 Quality Care Symposium, a meeting focused on improving cancer care. They come from a secondary analysis of a phase II clinical trial. Patients participated in a supervised remote exercise program with weekly telehealth sessions led by an exercise physiologist and individualized aerobic, resistance and mobility exercises.
Health-related quality of life improved in 75.8% of participants in the exercise group, compared with 6.3% receiving usual care. Reduced cancer-related fatigue was the main contributor.
These are preliminary findings requiring confirmation. They concern symptom management and quality of life, rather than proof that exercise improves immunotherapy’s anticancer effectiveness. Even with that distinction, the practical message matters: professional guidance can help patients move while undergoing treatment.
The mental health headline offers another example. University College London researchers reviewed 12 randomized trials involving more than 1,000 women in perimenopause and early post menopause. Aerobic activities, including walking and dance, showed benefits for depressive symptoms and overall quality of life. Mind-body activities, including yoga and Pilates, improved psychological quality of life. Many interventions involved group participation.
The researchers caution that studies varied substantially and many had a high risk of bias. The findings support exercise as a promising option within care, with further research needed to establish the most effective approaches.
These stories sit within a broader evidence base. A 2024 review published in The BMJ examined 218 trials involving 14,170 participants with depression. Walking or jogging, yoga and strength training produced moderate reductions in depressive symptoms compared with active controls. Confidence in many findings was low, but the review supported exercise as a treatment option.
The Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments already recommends supervised exercise as a first-line standalone treatment for mild depression and a second-line addition to treatment for moderate depression. That distinction matters: exercise recommendations should reflect the individual and their clinical needs.
University of Ottawa psychiatry resident Dr. Nicholas Fabiano has called for individualized exercise prescriptions, clearer referrals to exercise professionals and insurance coverage. His question is direct: “If we don’t hesitate to prescribe a pill, why do we hesitate with exercise?”
The Prescription Needs a Pathway
For someone experiencing fatigue, low mood or uncertainty about exercising safely, advice alone may be difficult to follow. A useful prescription needs an appropriate program, a qualified professional and a realistic way to participate.
Fitness facilities can contribute to that pathway through partnerships with healthcare providers and programs delivered by professionals with the relevant training. Matching qualifications to patients’ needs is essential. Clinical exercise physiology, rehabilitation and general fitness instruction serve different purposes.
The opportunity is to make those connections stronger, so patients can find suitable support in their communities and continue being active beyond a time-limited intervention. Exercise is a dose that we must take daily, and we need to support building lifelong habits.
Affordability must be part of that conversation. A prescription only works if the patient can fill it.
The Cost of Participation
Research commissioned by the Health & Fitness Association and Global Health & Fitness Alliance, with Portas Consulting, surveyed 1,075 people aged 16–65 across 10 Canadian cities. Among respondents who were not fitness facility customers, 62% selected cost as one of their three biggest barriers to joining.
The report modelled a hypothetical 10% reduction in membership prices. It estimated the potential for up to 2.5 million additional customers, approximately 77,000 fewer disease cases and 513 fewer deaths annually.
Projected annual benefits included $402 million in healthcare savings and $1 billion in productivity gains, against a hypothetical $348 million investment: approximately a fourfold combined return.
These are modelled possibilities, not measured outcomes or forecasts of the Fitness Industry Council of Canada’s specific proposal. They depend on assumptions about participation and activity. Nevertheless, they provide a reason to investigate affordability as a public health intervention.
Exercise is Prevention and Treatment
We should not wait for someone to be in the trenches of chronic disease or a mental health crisis to intervene with exercise – research continues to show that exercise works for both prevention and treatment and should be recognized as an important health intervention or aid.
Line 33099 of the Canadian Tax form allows Canadians to claim medical expenses, as a percentage of their income. On that extensive list Canadians can claim hearing aids, power-operated chairs and select vitamins – however the Canada Revenue Agency explicitly lists athletic and fitness club fees as ineligible medical expenses. Eligible prescription medications and other qualifying treatment expenses can be claimed; gym fees cannot.
The Fitness Industry Council of Canada is calling on Ottawa to make athletic and fitness club fees eligible medical expenses, recognizing the role exercise plays in prevention and treatment.
The clinical evidence strengthens the case for prescribed exercise. Our broader request also recognizes prevention: Canadians should have support to become active before they develop a condition, as well as appropriate opportunities to exercise after diagnosis.
Tax recognition would be one step. Referral partnerships, accessible programs and targeted assistance would still matter, particularly for people facing upfront costs.
Canada’s nature prescription program shows the value of connecting a health recommendation with access. The fitness industry is ready to help build that connection for exercise.
Operators, trainers and suppliers can advance it by developing healthcare partnerships and asking their MPs to support fitness affordability. The evidence deserves attention. Canadians deserve a practical way to act on it.
Sources:
PaRx and Parks Canada collaboration
The ASCO Post: Remote exercise during cancer immunotherapy, October 13, 2026
BMJ Group: Review of exercise for depression, February 15, 2024
Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments: Depression treatment guidelines
University of Ottawa: Dr. Nicholas Fabiano on prescribing exercise, September 9, 2025
Health & Fitness Association and Portas Consulting: Canada affordability report
Canada Revenue Agency: Eligible medical expenses
Fitness Industry Council of Canada: Federal pre-budget submission
Fitness Industry Council of Canada (FIC) is the not-for profit trade association that represents the voice of fitness facility operators across Canada. Representing more than 6,000 facilities with more than six-million members nationwide, FIC pursues a legislative agenda in the hope of bettering the fitness industry for both consumers and operators. FIC aims to work with both industry and government to improve the health and physical activity levels of Canadians.
