Restaurants plead for help as Omicron threatens to take devastating toll

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Small businesses and restaurants in Canada are calling for government support as fresh restrictions now being imposed to battle the Omicron variant of COVID-19 severely restrict their trade and new “incredibly limited” aid programs fall short.

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In an open letter to Canadian premiers Tuesday the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and Restaurants Canada pleaded for immediate help.

“Put frankly, tens of thousands of small firms across Canada will receive no support from governments while government restrictions dramatically reduce their ability to serve customers and public health warnings frighten many consumers into staying home,” the groups said.

Most provinces have now announced further capacity limits to restaurants and businesses and even if they haven’t, nervous consumers are cancelling reservations and going back to shopping online, the letter said.

The Christmas season has become a nightmare as mounting case counts have brought back the restrictions and worries many had hoped were gone for good after the lull in the virus over summer and fall.

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Ontario has limited indoor settings to 50 per cent capacity, including shops and restaurants. Bars and restaurants must close at 11 p.m., with the exception of take out and delivery service. Quebec has shut down bars, casinos, theatres and gyms. Restaurants can serve at 50 per cent capacity during limited hours.

Last weekend the Louis Cifer Brew Works and Stout Irish Pub in Toronto was fully booked with reservations. All but one cancelled, the Canadian Press reports.

“It’s almost like we don’t have to manage only having 50 per cent capacity, because customers are taking it upon themselves to cancel,” owner Erin Gamelin told CP.

“This is something that will destroy our industry,” she said. “Restaurants are barely hanging on month by month.”

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Even before the Omicron outbreak, the sales of almost two-thirds of small businesses had not returned to normal, CFIB says. A quarter of these said their businesses could fail within the next six months.

Nor do new government support programs fill the gaps. Help from Ottawa is now “incredibly limited,” said CFIB, with data, even before Omicron, showing that 80 per cent of the small businesses that need help no longer qualify for aid.

Under Ottawa’s new programs a restaurant that has lost 35 per cent of its revenue, and a retailer that has lost 45 per cent will no longer receive support, said the letter.

Federal “lockdown” support is only available to businesses which have been almost completely shut down. If the business has had to restrict operations to 50 per cent it is ineligible.

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“Any little glimmer of hope that many businesses saw at the end of this two-year tunnel is quickly being extinguished,” the head of CFIB Dan Kelly told Canadian Press.

“Any kind of reserves or fat that the businesses might have had have long since been eliminated.”

The letter calls for the premiers to introduce a new round of provincial small business grants. They also asked the provinces to urge Ottawa to:

• Return wage and rent subsidies to spring of 2021 levels
• Revise extra lockdown supports so that businesses facing partial restrictions are included
• Reopen the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loan program with a larger loan, a larger forgivable portion and delayed repayment requirements
• Ensure that new firms can qualify for all programs