A total of $40.7 million will be invested over five years to facilitate access to sports equipment for Quebecers.
This was announced on Friday by the Minister for Education, responsible for leisure and sport, Isabelle Charest.
“Accessibility to sports and leisure activities in all their forms is a priority for me, and the price of equipment is a hindrance,” Minister Charest said in a press release.
Ultimately, the project and the investments should allow the population to easily and free obtain sports, recreational and adapted equipment.
A sum of $13.3 million will be paid in the first year. Accompanied by the President of Accès-Loisirs Québec, André Lavigne, Minister Charest presented the plan which includes the creation of “regional equipment centres”, i.e. banks of sports equipment available to all, and the development of a website acting as a directory for power stations.
It should be noted that a leisure equipment center has already been in service for several years in Montreal, in the Rosemont district, under the administration of Accès-Loisirs Québec.
“The seven-year experience of the central equipment of Accès-Loisirs Québec has clearly demonstrated that it is an incentive to the practice of leisure and that it gives the possibility of experimenting with new activities”, s” is delighted Mr. Lavigne.
The plan also includes a support program for the purchase of equipment which “will mainly benefit low-income families and the most vulnerable clienteles”.
This investment follows an initial payment of $1.9 million in 2021 in the sports and recreation sector.
Quebec hopes to increase to 10% “the proportion of the population who performs the minimum recommended volume of physical activity during their free time and increase it by 20% among young people aged 6 to 17” by 2027.
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