Eateries will not police `household only' rules
Restaurateurs say it will be up to diners to ensure they stay within their bubbles
Alberta restaurant owners will not be policing their tables to ensure that all diners are members of the same household, leaving it to customers to be honest and adhere to the latest public-health restrictions.
On Tuesday, Premier Jason Kenney announced a series of new measures aimed at slowing the tidal wave of new COVID-19 cases in the province. The new targeted restrictions include several aimed at restaurants, pubs and lounges. While these establishments are allowed to remain open for in-person service, recently implemented rules that prohibit serving alcohol after 10 p.m. and require an 11 p.m. closing time will remain in place.
In addition, as of Friday, only people from the same immediate household may sit at the same table (a maximum of six diners). People who live alone may dine with up to two non-household contacts.
According to the Alberta government, inspections will be taking place to verify that public-health measures are being followed, and establishments that are non-compliant may face orders and fines.
But those in the industry say restaurant staff cannot be expected to police who patrons come in with, or interrogate diners about their relationship to each other.
“As a restaurateur, it's not really our place to say `who is this person with you?'” said Chad Mccormick, a partner with the TMAC Pub and Restaurant Group, a family of nine Calgary pubs including the Bank & Baron on Stephen Avenue. “We're ultimately going to have to lean on everyone coming in to be listening to the premier and saying `it is up to all of us to do this.' There's just no other way to do it.”
Similar rules restricting restaurant patrons to household cohorts only were brought into place in B.C. earlier this month. Mark von Schellwitz, Western Canada vice-president for the industry lobby group Restaurants Canada, said in that province, the government quickly clarified that restaurants would not be responsible for policing the rule after concerns about enforceability were raised by business owners.
“What was clarified in B.C. is it's not the responsibility of the restaurant staff to guarantee who's in what bubble,” von Schellwitz said. “That responsibility should be on those guests. The assumption is you're not going to come into a restaurant unless you're with your household members.”
Von Schellwitz said while the restaurant industry has been spared a full shutdown, restricting dining to household cohorts has a huge financial effect on an industry built around socializing.
“People do take the public-health orders seriously. Just in the past week in B.C., I was talking to members and, in general, business is down anywhere from 25 to 60 per cent,” he said. “It has had a big impact on sales.”
Von Schellwitz added that while he doesn't believe restaurants should be required to ID patrons or grill them about their relationship to one another, Restaurants Canada is encouraging all of its members across the country to consider taking down a name and phone number from each table to assist with contact tracing should an outbreak occur.
“It's certainly not mandatory, but I think it's the responsible thing to do,” he said.
For his part, while Mccormick reiterated he is not comfortable interrogating guests about their household connections, it might be possible if all the restaurants in the city could work together to develop one form or checklist, which could be given to all patrons at every establishment.
“If we could come together with some form of one-liner, perhaps we could ask guests, `are you here with your immediate household only,'” he said. “Because then we would have some sort of commonality where everybody would feel safe asking that question … because everybody else is asking that question.”
Most restaurants are doing everything they can to keep customers safe, Mccormick added. He said he will report any establishment flouting public health orders.