Closing restaurant dining rooms at 5 p.m. on New Year’s Eve is the worst-case scenario for restaurant owners. For their part, retailers breathe a sigh of relief. At hardware stores, we even applaud the decision to close shops on Sundays.
“For us, it’s the worst-case scenario,” laments Martin Vézina, director of public and government affairs for the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ). We hoped that the government would keep the rooms open, even if it meant limiting the tables to a single family bubble, but the government is simply closing the dining rooms for the third time in nearly two years. ”
“The resilience of entrepreneurs is not without limits,” warns François Vincent, vice-president for Quebec of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which has many restaurateurs among its members. During the pandemic, restaurants contracted an average debt that exceeds $ 200,000, he says.
“It is an unfortunate decision which will have short-term and long-term repercussions for our industry,” Mr. Vézina fears.
In the short term, deadweight losses are on the menu. Fridges full for New Year’s Eve will remain full after 5 p.m. on December 31. The ARQ is asking that restaurateurs be compensated for their food losses.
The same request is made by bar owners. “The programs in place do not apply to bar owners, or only partially, for example in the case of assistance with the payment of rent”, says Renaud Poulin, president of the Corporation of the owners of bars, brasseries and taverns. of Quebec.
But it is the long-term repercussions of this third closure that worries Mr. Vézina of the ARQ the most. “Our staff will go and work in the other sectors that remain open and they will not come back to our industry. These repeated closures make the industry unstable. It is demoralizing for the operators. ”
The shops remain open, except Sunday
As for retailers, we take comfort in the idea that businesses remain open, even if we say we are disappointed with the closure decreed for the next three Sundays.
“We are happy to be able to open six days a week, even if we preferred seven days a week,” said Jean-Guy Côté, director general of the Conseil québécois du commerce de commerce. Unlike other activities, boutiques and shops are not gathering places, ”he adds. Businesses must already limit traffic to 1 person for 20 square meters of surface area.
Convenience stores, gas stations and pharmacies will be able to remain open seven days a week.
The announcement of the closure on Sunday also delighted hardware stores, who have been calling for this measure since last summer. “I say: hallelujah! », Exclaimed Richard Darveau, president of the Quebec Association of hardware and building materials. “All our members will be happy, it will be unanimous. For Mr. Darveau, closing Sunday, in addition to promoting work-family balance, will improve the profit margins of its members.
“It is possible to limit the spread of the virus without closing shops,” argues for his part François Vincent, of the CFIB. If they experience labor availability problems, they themselves have the freedom to decide to close on Sunday, he said. Mr. Vincent points out that 55% of SMEs have not recovered their sales before the pandemic. Of the lot, nearly one in four may not cross the year 2022, according to data collected by his organization.
To limit the effect on traffic on other days of the week, the CFIB is asking the government of Quebec to allow curbside order pickup on Sundays.
Mr. Vincent also asks Quebec to consider shortening the isolation period for asymptomatic COVID-19 patients from 10 to 5 days, as in the United States.
In addition, the postponement of the reopening of schools until Jan. 17 will have a negative impact on the availability of the workforce, according to the spokesperson for the CFIB.
“Especially for families with children who are not independent, parents will not be able to offer an adequate workforce to companies”, corroborates Roxane Borgès Da Silva, professor at the School of Public Health of the University of Montreal.
With the collaboration of Lila Dussault, Press