`ANYBODY'S GUESS'
Businesses brace for still more uncertainty
Some Edmonton businesses are bracing to lay off staff during the holiday season as new COVID-19 restrictions take effect this weekend.
The Alberta government on Tuesday announced several new measures to curb the spread of the virus, including shutting down casinos, gyms and dine-in services at restaurants. The provincewide restrictions come into effect on Sunday.
Patrick Saurette, co-owner of the Marc, said he's expecting to lay off 95 per cent of his 19 staff because of the restrictions. He said he and his wife will be working alongside two staff members in the kitchen.
“It's not the Christmas season that we would normally see,” Saurette said. “Obviously, you can't have large parties. It's going to be very interesting come the middle of January. Are we going to have like $70 (worth) of food go through the front door or are we going to have $700 (worth) of food go through the front door? It's anybody's guess.”
He said hospitality, food services and tourism provide thousands of jobs to the Alberta economy and if the province is to recover, these industries have to be a part of it.
“We could easily inject another 100,000 jobs into the Canadian economy almost overnight,” Saurette said. “They may not be high power jobs but they're important jobs.”
He said his restaurant has been receiving a lot of support from the community and urged everyone to support local businesses in any way possible — including through social media. Saurette said his restaurant will be offering $80 holiday gift bags which will feature a variety of in-house items such as salmon, bacon jam, steaks and foie gras butter.
Lynsae Moon, an owner of the Nook Cafe, said before the start of the pandemic, they had 13 staff members but that dropped to four when they reopened in June. She said she would only consider additional layoffs as a last resort.
“( We're) just constantly weighing out what is the better outcome right now with the wage subsidy,” Moon said. “What we're bringing in we're able to keep those four on, not full-time, but at a reasonable amount of hours.”
She said usually around the holidays she would increase hours for staff and bring on additional employees to cover an evening shift but that won't be the case this year. Moon said her business relies heavily on events and shows in the downtown core but, with those attractions no longer happening, she's barely hitting 15 per cent of her sales targets.
She said the nearby office towers were helping to generate business but she suspects more people will be working from home on Monday. The province also mandated working from home if being in the office isn't necessary.
Graeme Ly, an owner of the Board N Brew Cafe, said they decided to close their store along 103 Street four weeks ago following the Alberta government's first announcement of additional measures. He said with the rising number of cases it just made sense to keep the store closed.
“When we had initially shut down (in March), it was, obviously, very negative on the business but it also gave us a little bit of time to make some improvements,” he said. “At that time, the government was giving us loans and grants so it gave us an opportunity to improve the business. We were actually really excited to open up again. Then these restrictions come down (and) it started getting really frustrating. It's a little depressing because you make all these improvements ... and then literally a month into it, we had to shut down again.”
Ly said when the store was open even at 50 per cent capacity, they were barely breaking even. He said the store's business model relies on customers coming in to play board games but until that can be done safely he's not sure when they will reopen.