Several restaurants in Saskatchewan are being forced to stop dinner service, cut hours or temporarily shut down entirely as another wave of COVID-19 rears its head to take another bite out of an already chewed up industry.
Restaurants like Primal in Saskatoon, as well as Keg and Smoke’s Poutinerie in Regina, have had to cut their service levels in recent weeks.
Primal owner and chef Christie Peters told Global News that her organization’s desire to be a community leader in pandemic security means, in part, frequent employee testing. Unfortunately, last week that meant three staff members were found to test positive for COVID-19 at around the same time.
“I’ll never forget. It was Friday. It was one of our busiest days and we had to call all reservations and cancel,” explained Peters, adding that while he plans to reopen dinner service on Monday, the long-term future is less certain. .
“Every day we wake up we get everyone’s test results, we see what we have for the staff and we make a call about whether or not we can open safely.”
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Restaurants Canada Western Vice President Mark von Schellwitz said the pandemic is exacerbating an employment problem that existed before COVID-19 took its first bite into the industry.
“We know that we have several restaurants on the brink in the hope that there will not be one more big outbreak or closure, because they are very close to sinking,” he said.
“And some restaurateurs have been forced to close because they don’t have enough staff to operate or have had to switch to take-out and home delivery, requiring much less staff to operate. However, that is not as profitable for the restaurant as eating inside ”.
von Schellwitz added that “a big shift in demographics” is causing fewer people to choose the restaurant industry for entry-level jobs.
“Our industry relies heavily on new additions to the workforce. Much of our staff is under 25 years old. If we had the same level of entry into the youth labor market that we had a decade ago, there would be 100,000 more employees to choose from, ”he said.
“We have not returned to pre-COVID employment levels. The stop-and-go of restrictions are certainly causing some people to look elsewhere for opportunities, so they have had an impact on our staffing capacity as well. “
von Schellwitz said Restaurants Canada and its members would like to see an “industry-specific flow of immigration” for the foodservice industry.
He also said that many member restaurateurs in Saskatchewan are also calling for the re-implementation of the delivery fee cap that was established earlier this year. It expired at the end of April.
“What we are hearing from many members is debt. How much longer can you continue to accumulate debt without being bitten again? ” he said.
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Peters detailed a series of steps he is taking to maintain a stable and consistent workforce.
“We are trying to be leaders in the culinary scene by making sure we are paying a living wage and offering health benefits and shorter hours,” he explained.
“We offer a lot of work-life balance and mentoring, and we try to deliver meaning behind the job with a lot of learning.”
However, he said he hears a lot from his peers in the industry about the “huge” shortage of cooks and waiters, adding that even with a stable staff, the pandemic is likely to make the near-term future challenging.
“I don’t know if this is going to be a slump or if we’re going to be doing take out one day, have dinner the next day and then take out again, and then we might have to close our doors for a bit,” Peters said.
“So we’re ready to ride out the storm, but it’s definitely not business as usual.”
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