Absolutely. Thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Sorbara.
The wage and rent subsidies have been the most critical programs for our industry. In the very beginning of the pandemic we were negotiating strongly with landlords. As the Fitness Industry Council of Canada, we had all of our facilities on massive Zoom calls, all figuring out how we would negotiate with landlords, and a lot of that has been through rent abatement. There are upcoming costs that will hit our books and hit our bank accounts, but in general, the wage subsidy for the people we have been able to maintain employment for has been extremely helpful.
For our facilities, whether they're smaller boutique facilities or large 30,000-square-foot facilities, they have been very helpful, but there are of course limitations to all of it. Anecdotally, it feels like they're going to work for a lot of different types of businesses. Again, in the fitness industry, as a thriving industry entering this pandemic, we had businesses opening in the tens and hundreds across this country on a month-to-month basis. The majority of those fitness businesses that were new have closed. I have personally had to close four of our locations. They were all the newest and youngest of our locations that were opened in the 12 months prior to the pandemic starting.
The programs have been great. The limitations to them have made it so that there are groups, even within our industry, that cannot benefit, but the economic burden that our industry has to reopen is almost insurmountable.