N.S. Premier Announces Shutdown Of Bars And Restaurants
HALIFAX – There’s no doubt that pubs and restaurants are among the hardest hit businesses in Halifax as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. With fewer people going out to eat, drink, or socialize, there’s already been a wave of temporary business closures in the HRM.
And now there are new restrictions being placed on these businesses by the Nova Scotia Government. Starting Thursday, restaurants can only operate take-out and delivery services; bars won’t be allowed to open at all.
“Effective today, we are limiting all public gatherings to no more than 50 people,” announced Premier Stephen McNeil in a Tuesday press conference. “As of Thursday, restaurants will only be able to do takeout, and all drinking establishments will be closed.”
Many restaurants had already taken action in advance of the government decision with a flurry of announcements of voluntary closures early this week.
Christine Bower, co-owner of the two Wooden Monkey restaurants, is one of the many restaurant owners who has been struggling to keep the doors open. Bower, along with her 75 employees are worried about the financial toll the pandemic is having on the restaurants’ bottom line.
“There’s some staff that are worried about if they should even come into work, and I have other staff that’s worried about how they’re going to pay rent…There’s a lot of worry all around,” said Bower.
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Bower said business has been dipping for the past two-three weeks, as concern grew about the coronavirus.
“We would see people here and there with masks on. (The concern) started to grow then, and staff started emailing us about it,” said Bower.
“It’s gotten to a point, now, where nobody is going out.”
This past Sunday The Wooden Monkey tried having a 20 percent off sale on delivery, in the hopes of improving business, but the sale only garnered a couple of orders.
To make matters worse, the winter months are infamously slow for restaurants. So, the sudden disruption in business comes at a time when business owners have little cash on hand.
“Coming out of the winter months, this couldn’t come at a worse time for restaurants,” said Bower.
“Your cashflow in restaurants right now is at a critical low, that’s just how it works.”
Paul MacKinnon, Chief Executive Officer of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission says support from the different levels of government, and the general public, will be needed in order to help businesses survive.
“We fully anticipate that there is going to be unprecedented government support, and public support, to get businesses back up on their feet,” said MacKinnon.
“Our message to government is they’ll have to be pretty creative, and pretty flexible. This is an unprecedented situation, so the response will be unprecedented.”
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But MacKinnon and others in the business community know governments can’t be expected to fix every problem created by the coronavirus pandemic, so a coordinated response from everyone will be needed.
“I don’t think we can totally rely on governments to fix all this when it’s over,” he said. “There’s going to need to be a whole suite of creative solutions from everybody.”
One temporary solution that will be promoted by the commission is rent flexibility from landlords. At a time when a lot of businesses aren’t getting customers, there is hope landlords will be understanding if rent isn’t paid on time.
The Downtown Halifax Business Commission represents approximately 1,600 businesses, so it’s going to be nearly impossible to track the exact number of closed businesses as the days and weeks unfold. But the commission says they will try to keep a tally on its website.
“That’s one of the tasks we’re taking on is keeping track of that… that information will be on our website,” said MacKinnon.
“It’s important to track because we’ll want to get a sense of what the overall impact of this entire situation was once it’s over.”
MacKinnon, like many others, has already noticed that restaurants and bars have been financially hit fast and hard by the pandemic. To make matters worse, businesses that relied on St. Patrick’s Day celebrations for income missed out on a big payday.
“This is one of the biggest days of the year, if not the biggest day of the year, for many of the restaurants and Irish pubs,” said MacKinnon.
“On Saturday the Irish pubs got together and agreed they were cancelling their St. Patrick’s day festivities and moving it to late May.”
MacKinnon says one of those Irish pubs has already closed indefinitely.
MacKinnon is also worried about Halifax businesses that rely on tourism each summer for their income. With cruise ship visits already cancelled until July, and people no longer travelling, he expects the industry to take a big blow.
“We know the impact on the cruise ship industry is going to be pretty quick and severe. But how will this impact tourism across the board? Tourism is one of the largest parts of the Nova Scotia economy,” said MacKinnon.
MacKinnon believes that Halifax consumers will continue to help local businesses as much as they can during these trying times. He’s already heard of some inspiring stories of customers doing what they can, even if they can’t visit the store in person.
“We’re hearing stories of customers who are buying gift cards or ordering online,” he said.
“There’s a great love for local business here. That’s one of the great things about a city like Halifax. There’s already a great relationship between businesses and customers.”