There have never been so few restaurants in Quebec in 10 years, according to data transmitted to Duty by the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ).
There were 27,882 restaurant permit holders in 2014, 28,456 in 2019 and 26,160 in 2023. In four years, the decline is about 8%.
This fall does not surprise the vice-president of public affairs of the Restaurants Canada association, Maximilien Roy. “It’s extremely difficult to be in the restaurant business. We had the pandemic and then inflation, which is changing consumer habits,” says Mr. Roy, who describes the current context as a “perfect storm.”
He believes that this drop is significant and that the first months of 2024 are not likely to change the trend, quite the contrary. The COVID loan repayment deadline at the end of January has already pushed some restaurateurs to close their doors. The duty has identified more than ten Quebec restaurants having announced their closure in January. “It’s obvious that there are going to be others,” predicts Mr. Roy.
These figures include not only full-service restaurants, but also snack bars, canteens and cafeterias, some of which are found in institutions such as seniors’ residences or educational establishments.
“Despite the stability of the institutional sector, the decrease in commercial catering causes the total number of permits to drop,” notes Martin Vézina, vice-president of public affairs for the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ). According to an analysis of MAPAQ data carried out by the ARQ, the number of “commercial” restaurants decreased by 18% between February 2020 and July 2023.
Restaurants Canada believes that the Quebec government should do more to help the industry weather these unfavorable winds. The association would like the Société des alcools du Québec to sign preferential pricing agreements with restaurateurs so that they can offer their customers more attractive prices on alcohol.
The search for solutions to the labor shortage, in particular the use of foreign workers, should intensify, Mr. Roy also believes. This problem forces catering establishments to operate “on average at 80% of their capacity,” he says.
Finally, his association is asking for an extension of the deadline for adopting a new sales recording system, mandatory as part of a reform of the transmission of transactional data to Revenu Québec. “Restaurants that are struggling don’t see how they can continue to provide good service to customers while complying with this,” said Mr. Roy.