One of Vancouver’s best-known fitness entrepreneurs wants people to receive a tax credit for buying gym memberships.

In a recent interview at his 20,000-square-foot Kitsilano facility, Ron Zalko told the Straight that the federal and provincial governments should give people an incentive to exercise.

“You’ll save money in the health-care system,” he predicted.

The provincial government allocated $17.5 billion on health care in the last provincial budget.

Last spring, B.C. finance minister Mike de Jong forecast spending nearly $18 billoin on health care in the 2016–17 fiscal year.

Zalko pointed out that physicians and dentists are exempt from charging the goods and services tax on work done for medical reasons.

But the same exemption isn’t available to people who pay to work out at community centres and other locations.

“I’ve been fighting for it for years,” Zalko said.

De Jong and federal finance minister Bill Morneau are expected to unveil their annual budgets in the coming weeks.