Outdoor exercise classes will once again be permitted in Ontario this weekend after more than two months of heavy COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, and Toronto gym owners couldn't be more excited.

Wait... actually, they could.

You see, as stoked as fitness industry professionals are to begin offering at least one type of in-person service again (actual gym facilities can't open until Step 3), Toronto residents can now get that very service for free or for cheap from the municipal government.

The city unveiled its new "ParkFitTO" pilot program on Monday, mere hours after the province announced that we'd be moving from shutdown mode into Step 1 on June 11, three days earlier than initially planned.

In many ways, it's an awesome initiative that puts Toronto's ample supply of green space to use in service of community health: Outdoor gyms will be set up in parks and parking lots throughout the city beginning June 10, all of them with equipment such as mats, risers and weights, and residents can work out there for free in 45-minute intervals.

On top of this, there are free outdoor "walk-fit" programs led by instructors, and fee-based outdoor group fitness classes including Zumba, Cardio HIIT, Stretching and Boot Camp. The latter classes are capped at 10 people and cost $68 per adult for an entire four-week-long session. Sessions run all summer.

Again, very nice in terms of helping people get active, fit and social during an otherwise isolating time — but is this the right time for city officials to launch such an initiative? At least one Toronto business owner says no.

MJ Shaw, the actor, choreographer, fitness expert and entrepreneur behind Soul Fuel Fitness on Bloor Street West (just east of High Park) was "pretty ticked off" to learn of the city's ParkFitTO initiative.

"I woke up this morning to see that the City of Toronto is starting ParkFitTO, which a couple of years ago, I would have been like 'cool, great… incentivizing health and wellness for the masses'," said Shaw in a video posted to her company's Instagram page Tuesday.

"Today, I don't feel that way... because we are not on equal footing."

Shaw's video comes in the form of an open address to her MP, MPP and city councillors, and contains some valid questions for all three levels of government, chiefly: "How are you going to help us?"

The business owner explains that her industry and studio have been "decimated" by the COVID pandemic after 18 months of forced closures, and that they're at a massive disadvantage as Ontario slowly starts to reopen.