DINING DIP: Restaurants taking hit as experts push for shutdown
Toronto cites indoor dining for outbreaks — but businesses argue against shutdown
As provincial and city officials continue to debate a moratorium on indoor dining, some restaurants say they’re already feeling a pinch in the wake of new COVID-related restrictions.
“We had 24 no-shows Saturday night. It’s not a coincidence,” said Robin Singh, partner at Woods Restaurant and Bar.
That came a day after Toronto’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, cut the number of people allowed at a restaurant table from 10 to six and urged the province to shut down indoor dining.
“We’re having to call people up and say, ‘We’ll have to put four of you at another table,’ and they say, ‘Well, we’re just not going to bother,’ ” said Singh, who estimates his downtown restaurant is seeing just 10 per cent of the revenue it had at this time last year.
On Monday, de Villa again urged the Ontario government to introduce a 28day moratorium on indoor dining, something she said the city doesn’t have the power to do on its own.
“We know these measures have been successful in the past, and in other jurisdictions,” de Villa said at a press conference where she also reiterated that 44 per cent of recent COVID outbreaks in Toronto had been linked to indoor dining. She wasn’t able to immediately say what percentage of new cases had been linked to indoor dining.
Singh argued some of those outbreaks
could have easily been avoided with more enforcement like the city’s recent temporary closing of three King St. restaurants, which had been disobeying COVID-related restrictions.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, meanwhile, showed a strong reluctance to deal another blow to the already hard-hit hospitality sector, saying that he’s not yet convinced another restaurant shutdown is necessary.
“Because we have some bad apples, we’re going to ruin people’s lives? Before I destroy someone’s life, show me more evidence,” Ford said.
That was music to the ears of Andrew Oliver, president and CEO of Oliver & Bonacini Hospitality, who argues a shutdown of Toronto’s restaurants wouldn’t be much more than symbolic. “How is getting 20 people together in a 500square-foot condo at midnight safer than being in a bar or restaurant with social distancing? Are we really at a point where we think people won’t get together on their own?” Oliver asked.
At Oliver & Bonacini’s dozens of restaurants, Oliver says, 2020 has been a financial struggle unlike any he’s ever seen. He estimates revenue is down 60 per cent from this time last year. “This company will survive. There are some locations which might not,” Oliver said.
But Dr. Abdu Sharkawy, an infectious disease specialist at the University Health Network, said there’s no doubt at all in his mind that indoor dining increases the risk of COVID spreading.
Sharkawy said a provincewide moratorium on indoor dining and drinking, as has been introduced in Montreal and Quebec City, is necessary to slow the spread of the global pandemic.
“The province is trying to maintain business for as long as possible and appear supportive of the economy. But it’s too late to offer these modest concessions with diluted restrictions on capacity,” said Sharkawy.
It’s even more necessary, said Sharkawy, as Toronto’s contact tracing system has been overwhelmed to the point where the city is now only doing it for people whose infections can be traced back to an outbreak at “congregate settings” such as long-term-care homes.
“The collapse of the testing and tracing system should have been enough to sound the alarm to policy-makers that we are in big trouble here,” Sharkawy said. “I’m not sure what else we’re waiting for besides evidence of the health-care system’s capacity starting to fail. That’s entirely conceivable if flu season is anything but historically mild. That’s not a given. This is a dangerous game to play.” If another shutdown happens, Oliver says the City of Toronto should also put a moratorium on property taxes.
“How is it morally acceptable for a government to continue collecting property tax on places they’ve shut down?,” said Oliver, who also urged all levels of government to make good on promises for hospitality-specific financial aid.
“If you’re going to shut us down as an industry, you’d better be there to support us financially,” Oliver said.
Singh, meanwhile, had another suggestion for political leaders leaning toward a shutdown.
“Let’s see the politicians have to live on CERB. We’d see their perspectives change pretty quickly,” said Singh, who said he’s scared by the prospect of another shutdown or moratorium on indoor dining.
“It would be devastating for our industry. Independent places like this? There will definitely be fewer of us.”
“If you’re going to shut us down as an industry, you’d better be there to support us financially.” ANDREW OLIVER OLIVER & BONACINI HOSPITALITY