Restaurant operators in the interior of southern British Columbia are struggling after flooding and landslides closed roads and rail lines, isolating businesses from the supply chains on which they depend.
It’s the latest hurdle after 20 months of fighting over the COVID-19 pandemic and a summer of smoky skies over wildfires that wiped out tourism.
“We really don’t have more to give in this scenario,” said Brandon Loughery, managing partner of the Woodsman Group, which operates two pubs around Kelowna and a seasonal restaurant at the SilverStar Mountain ski area in Vernon.
“We are already operating on very low margins,” he said in an interview.
They have been preparing to open the restaurant for the winter season, but after the floods, they cannot order what they need in bulk, Loughery said.
The two pubs in Kelowna rely on deliveries every three days, and with none in sight, Loughery said he hopes they won’t have enough food supplies by Monday.
They have been shopping at the grocery stores, trying to keep the doors open. But that’s expensive for a restaurant, and while the shelves were a bit fuller Thursday, there was little meat, milk, eggs or other items earlier in the week, he said.
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All major routes connecting the interior of British Columbia to the lower part of the continent were cut off by floods, landslides or mudslides after the southern part of the province was hit by record rains.
If such debilitating supply problems lasted a month or more, Loughery speculated that some restaurants in the interior would have to close their doors.
“If you don’t reach your base number to cover your fixed costs, things quickly go backwards.”
#Floods is another blow to #restaurants in #BC Interior, say operators and advocates.
Goods should start flowing again as some roads are reopened and alternative routes are established, but it will be a stressful couple of weeks for the industry, said Ian Tostenson, president of the BC Restaurant and Food Service Association.
“It could take 10 to 20 days to figure out the logistics of the new routes,” Tostenson said, noting that trucks generally travel to the interior every day along the Coquihalla highway, which is completely washed out and requires extensive repairs.
Meanwhile, he said, restaurants in the Okanagan Valley area are closing.
“There is not much storage of products in the interior, because they mainly depend on overnight shipping from the bottom of the continent, so it is a real challenge,” he said.
Supply was still flowing from Alberta to northern BC, Tostenson said.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said at a press conference this week that “our transportation infrastructure is paralyzed,” although he also said there are many parts of the province where routes are not compromised. The Retail Council of Canada and the trucking industry have made it clear that “there is a lot of supply,” he said.
Mark von Schellwitz, Western Vice President of Restaurants Canada, said the disastrous flood is another blow to an industry that has been grappling with the impacts of the pandemic, wildfires and “rampant” inflation on food prices.
“I can’t tell you how many operators I’ve talked to who are exasperated, just saying what else can be thrown at us, it seems like everything is conspiring against them trying to survive as a business,” von Schellwitz said in an interview.
Loughery also said that he has seen some food costs more than double in the last year and is concerned that flooding on major farmlands will send them higher.
“There is always a reason. It is because of the fires, it is because of the pandemic, now it will be because of the floods. I have never seen such high food prices,” Loughery said, adding that he had to switch products. used for years “because they just aren’t in the realm of possibility of what a customer will pay.”
This Canadian Press report was first published on November 19. 2020.
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com