My wife and I have been involved in the indoor tanning industry as salon owners, franchisors, and more recently, as trademark licensors, of our tanning concept for over two decades. Our salons are long standing members of The Joint Canadian Tanning Association. I first became involved with Steve Gilroy through a business friend. We were trying to set up a tanning association in Ontario. Steve had already started the process in Manitoba. It only took one call to Steve for me to realize this man was driven. His excitement about the industry, and his determination to make the industry professional, excited me also. I was in.  Together with Rome Haloftis, Mo Shpur, my wife Marie, and myself, we put together the beginnings of the OTA (Ontario Tanning Association).  It didn’t take long for us to gain much interest from salon owners, and pretty soon after, we combined the OTA with the Quebec Tanning Association, and the Manitoba Association, to begin to form a nationwide association called the Joint Canadian Tanning Association.

JCTA began trying to meet with the Ontario Health Department. Mo Shpur wrote letters weekly to them, explaining reasons why much of what they distributed was incorrect. It seemed to fall on deaf ears. The first meeting we attended was frustrating, when the Head of the Ontario Health Department told us that by walking for 15 minutes in the sunshine, with his sleeves rolled up, provided ample sun exposure to provide all the Vitamin D he needed.  I realized then that we had a huge hill to climb.

Since then, The JCTA has been operating, under the watchful eye of Steve Gilroy and many other industry professionals. During these years, JCTA has built the reputation of the Canadian Indoor Tanning industry as an industry association of professional operators, who understand controlled exposure, who follow JCTA Professional Standards to safeguard their clients from overexposure, and who are interested in taking care of their customer’s health through moderate UV exposure whether indoors or outdoors.

It is thanks to JCTA, that many doctors and dermatologists have given thought to their long time belief that all sun is bad. Some of them even changing their minds on the issue. It gives me comfort, as a salon owner, to know that JCTA is working on my behalf, to defend my business, and defend the industry itself from negativity from many areas, that seem to come up with misinformation most of the time. It is frightening to think what our industry would be like if we didn’t have JCTA defending our position. I am thankful that we have JCTA, and grateful to the dedicated board members and others, who work diligently, for no pay, to uphold our position.

If you are not yet a member of JCTA, now is the time to join.

Marie and Harry Jones

Palm Beach Mega Tan, Owners