With the help of a series of pandemic relief measures to expire this fall, a national agreement on places to eat requires the government to take a new way to help its suffering industry.
Restaurants Canada, which represents 30,000 of the country’s 97,000 restaurants, bars and catering companies, asked the Prime Minister to subsidize customers’ food as a direct form of economic stimulus.
“Our sector has been more affected than other sectors. So it’s probably time to do something that’s right for us,” said David Lefebvre, the organization’s vice president.
Restaurants Canada is launching the concept before the next Throne Address, hoping Ottawa will use the anti-pandemic handbag to increase the income of places to eat at the end of the terrace season. The concept came from a program called Eat Out to Help Out, which was introduced in the UK last month.
In August, the British government filed a 50% reduction in food up to C$17 ($10) consistent with dinner Monday through Wednesday. its launch.
The British swallowed it, asking for more than a hundred million meals. Restaurants implemented the reduction to their on-site bills, presenting receipts to the government for reimbursement. Nearly 85,000 restaurants participated.
“We believe this is anything that gives a special touch and inspires more restaurants to stay open,” Lefebvre said.
But there are questions about the concept that would be worth it here, and it’s safe.
Across the pond, the program is held through the government and many players from places to eat, and a chain even claims a 130% increase in sales.
The UK government says it has helped 1. 8 million jobs and revived a bankruptcy sector. He cited a search database from the OpenTable booking site showing that bookings Monday through Wednesday rose to 53% in August 2020 compared to 2019.
The Eat Out to Help Out charge is still being calculated. Figures published a few days before the program was completed showed that the government had already spent more than 520 million pounds, or more than C$890 million.
Lefebvre hopes that some kind of government-funded reduction can only bankrupt restaurants for a few months, especially in January and February, which are historically slow because consumers pay their vacation expenses.
Restaurants Canada estimates that its industry lost 800,000 jobs when the pandemic broke out. Although many have returned, employment in the food sector continues to drop by 20 percent, or 260,000 jobs, according to Statistics Canada.
The agreement also estimates that 10% of restaurants have already closed permanently and, without help, another 10% will disappear until November. By next March, he says up to 40% could close.
Restaurateurs say a discounted offer can be smart for business. An organization of Ontario owners even presented its own edition of the concept in October.
Nunu Rampen, owner and chef of Nunu Ethiopian restaurant in Toronto, says a government-sponsored reduction can make a big difference.
“Absolutely, I like it. It’s a very, very clever idea,” Rampen said.
She and her husband Chris opened Nunu in the 2008 recession. Today, after 12 years of hard work, they say the pandemic has almost bankrupt them. They only cater to visitors on their legal terrace through the city for security reasons.
They wonder what the right time would be for a program.
“If you’re about to return to a blocking situation, it’s cash that’s not being used smartly,” Rampen said.
In Calgary, Francine Gomes believes her restaurants have withstood the pandemic more than others thanks to her takeaway service.
“These small businesses have operating expenses that they have to pay regardless of whether they sit down or not,” said Gomes, owner of a couple of bird restaurants called Cluck N Cleaver with his sister Nicole. “So they want direct relief. “
Still, their downfall is that this would only provide a “rapid increase” in the source of income due to the physical distance and fears of many consumers going out to dinner.
Research through a policy expert at Oxford University has thoroughly tested the Eat Out to Help Out program confirms this theory.
The effects published through Tothrough Phillips recommend that the program created a spike in sales, but that it did not have a lasting effect on the business.
Based on July’s sales trends, Phillips believes the UK’s hotel industry is on track to backtrack on its own and that sales are now where they would have been anyway.
And it has a greater concern. “As the formula worked, the UK started to see an increase in COVID-19 cases,” Phillips wrote in an article for The Conversation.
He said it may not be possible to imagine whether the program caused the spike in infections, but a popular reduction and encouraging departures on certain days of the week were potential problems.
“Any program that fosters a ‘return to normal’ mentality is complicated because in the long run it will be more difficult to deal with ongoing epidemics,” Phillips said in an email to CBC News.
He warned that a safer option would be a takeaway promotion, a concept restaurants Canada also supports.
In the UK, some restaurants have called the program symbolic and others have withdrawn from the program due to “staff hostility. “
However, it is so popular that there is a call for a repeat, and some corporations continue to be published on their own.
Here, a new coalition of hotel companies led by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce is pressuring Canadians to faint again.
Lefebvre acknowledges that the government has a limited budget, but adds that many restaurants are still desperate: “They want anything to happen. “
Both teams say there is a need for a new hire assistance program and the extension of wage subsidies to the new year.
For more information about black Canadian reports, from racism against blacks to black network successes, see Being Black in Canada, a CBC assignment that black Canadians can be proud of.
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