{"id":249479,"date":"2020-03-21T23:42:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T03:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=249479"},"modified":"2020-03-22T07:51:25","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T11:51:25","slug":"restaurants-ask-government-for-help-to-stay-afloat-amid-coronavirus-shutdowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/21\/restaurants-ask-government-for-help-to-stay-afloat-amid-coronavirus-shutdowns\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurants ask government for help to stay afloat amid coronavirus shutdowns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Restaurant owners are struggling to stay afloat as health authorities and governments urge wide-scale shutdowns, and they’re asking Ottawa to offer immediate assistance to prevent mass bankruptcies when loans, mortgages and rent have to be paid. (Pexels photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John Yuen spent Friday clearing out the fridge at his Italian restaurant and wondering how he’d manage to scrounge up about $12,000 for his April rent payment after shutting his doors indefinitely earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Ferrovia Ristorante has a loyal following of diners built up over some 20 years in Thornhill, Ont., but though Yuen tried shifting to takeout after the province asked bars and dining rooms to shut down, he only sold about $300 worth of meals over three days.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just not financially feasible,\u201d said Yuen, so he decided to close his doors \u2014 hopefully temporarily \u2014 on Tuesday. He laid off about a dozen staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my baby. This is my love,\u201d Yuen said while removing from the fridge whatever food hadn’t been donated or doled out to staff, family and friends. \u201cIt’s very sad. Almost brings tears to my eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yuen isn’t alone. Restaurant owners are struggling to stay afloat as health authorities and governments urge wide-scale shutdowns, and they’re asking Ottawa to offer immediate assistance to prevent mass bankruptcies when loans, mortgages and rent have to be paid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just hope that the government would step in,\u201d said Yuen, who also co-owns a second restaurant in Toronto that continues to serve takeout, which works with its menu better than at Ferrovia. Still, that restaurant now brings in about half the\u00a0business, forcing Yuen to lay off several staff and reduce hours for those remaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that (the government) could make the process a little bit easier, so we could at least have a fighting chance right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He’s not alone in that sentiment.<\/p>\n

More than 90 per cent of restaurant owners that responded to a Restaurants Canada survey this week said they’re \u201cvery worried\u201d about the coronavirus impacting sales over the next three months, wrote spokeswoman Marlee Wasser in an email. The national association represents the food service industry. It sent the survey out to members Tuesday and received more than 400 responses, representing 9,000 establishments, for these preliminary results.<\/p>\n

Donna Dooher, co-owner of Toronto-based Mildred’s Temple Kitchen, is among the very worried. She shut down the restaurant, which she’s owned with her husband since the mid 80s, at the beginning of this week. She was troubled that people continued to come out in droves to dine in and felt \u201cit was time for us to do our part.\u201d The restaurant employed about 55 staff, who are now out of work.<\/p>\n

How long she and other operators can weather these closures depends on what resources they have access to and how much emotional fight they have left, said Dooher.<\/p>\n

For Mildred’s, it’s unclear how long that may be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish that I could tell you,\u201d said Dooher, who acknowledged that with more than three decades of owning the\u00a0business, she may have more financial flexibility than many others who operate on a month-to-month basis.<\/p>\n

Nearly 80 per cent of respondents to Restaurant Canada’s survey said they already experienced lower sales in the first two weeks of March compared to last year, and the majority of these owners said the drop was 25 per cent or steeper. More than a quarter of those with lower sales saw their revenue drop by at least half.<\/p>\n

Many of the respondents are considering closing down permanently, Wasser said, citing answers provided to a question on whether the owners had plans in place if the situation worsens in their area.<\/p>\n

Several said they will close or be forced into bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this lasts longer than two months, we will be wiped out without any help,\u201d one respondent wrote.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday an up to $82-billion spending package to help Canadians and businesses through the pandemic. It includes a wage subsidy for small businesses and the ability to defer tax payments until August.<\/p>\n

Restaurants Canada wants more relief \u201cso that restaurants can survive the unprecedented challenges they’re facing,\u201d the organization said in a statement.<\/p>\n

It is asking for more co-ordination with banks to make flexible arrangements for loans and mortgages, including payment-free periods, and flexible arrangements from landlords on rent, as well as no-eviction orders. It wants flexibility and relief on sales and property taxes, and more assistance to prevent further layoffs.<\/p>\n

Restaurateurs don’t tend to have much access to lines of credit or\u00a0business\u00a0loans, Dooher said. She worries people may resort to paying personal or\u00a0business\u00a0costs on high-interest credit cards, and would like to see governments help operators with some financial relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think sometimes we just forget about how important our industry is to the economy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While hoping for relief from the government, Yuen said he’s doing everything he can to save his\u00a0business.\u00a0The mortgage on his home is up for renewal and he’s trying to tap into its equity to access enough cash to pay the rent come April.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty years is a long time… It’s a lifetime to run a place, and to be shut down this way… It’s hard to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

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John Yuen spent Friday clearing out the fridge at his Italian restaurant and wondering how he’d manage to scrounge up …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":249480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,54365,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-instagram","category-news","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249481,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249479\/revisions\/249481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}