Quebec's Conservative Party Is Proposing A $500 Tax Credit To Pay For Gym Memberships

As the 2022 election cycle pushes on, Quebec's political parties are making promise after promise to garner votes and increase their popularity across the province. While some parties sell off-beat merch and others dunk on their constituents, Éric Duhaime's Conservative party focuses on what really matters: tax write-offs for honouring leg day.

The proposal "shouldn't be seen as an expense, but rather an investment," Duhaime said. In their press release on the subject, the party compares the plan to other fiscal initiatives set for Canadians by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper — and later rolled back by Justin Trudeau. The Conservatives' plan to bring sports and physical fitness back into focus for the province comes in six parts.

First, the party wants to implement 30 minutes of daily exercise into kids' school days starting as early as primary school. They also want to allow young people to access school infrastructure outside of regular hours and to invest in sports infrastructure throughout the province, as well as create national (read: provincial) sports teams.

The Conservatives also want to allow doctors to medically prescribe physical activity. Finally, the party wants to eliminate the QST for expenses related to physical activity, like buying sports equipment and gym memberships.

For Montrealers who aren't of schooling age anymore, this last measure is likely the most impactful, offsetting some of the literal cost of physical activity, which the party considers a move towards helping reduce rising costs of living. The tax write-off is capped at $500 annually. For context, the Platinum Econofitness gym membership plan — which they tout as their most popular — costs around $310 for the entire year.