Revenues plunge at restaurants, bars after latest health order

Focus on bad operators rather than punishing everyone, says industry spokesman

Owners of pubs and restaurants say their revenues dropped dramatically when the government ordered alcohol sales to stop two hours earlier.

Last week, provincial health officer Bonnie Henry, citing a rising number of COVID-19 cases, ordered on-premise liquor sales to end at 10 p.m. instead of midnight.

Since then, revenues have plunged by almost onethird, said Ian Tostenson of the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association.

“B.C.’s restaurant industry was already in a fragile state, with about 50 per cent of businesses not sure they’ll make it to the end of the year,” Tostenson said in a news release, referring to the ongoing economic fallout fro the pandemic.

“Dr. Henry’s verbal order led to an immediate 30 per cent decline in revenue for our industry — even though the vast majority of businesses are meeting or exceeding all health protocols and have invested thousands of dollars to provide a safe serving environment,” Tostenson said. “This is crazy.”

The association has already given specific and detailed information to the government about the consequences of the 10 p.m. cut-off in alcohol sales, warning of additional job losses and business closures. But it says Dr. Henry has not provided a response.

Restaurant and bar owners want the midnight cutoff restored, and the association says the government should focus enforcement resources on ‘bad operators’ who don’t comply with COVID-19 health and safety regulations.

When she ordered the 10 p.m. cut-off, Henry said she was doing so after a spike in COVID-19 cases linked to establishments where alcohol is sold.

She said the province needed to make adjustments now that the summer is coming to a close.

“We had a bit of a grace period in the summer, we were able to manage the cases,” she told a news conference last week.