Manitoba restaurants bracing for impact of new COVID-19 rules during holidays

Exhaustion, uncertainty and disappointment have all been felt by Manitoba businesses coping with another round of COVID-19 restrictions.

Restaurants will be required to scale back to 50 per cent capacity starting Tuesday, and a maximum of ten people per table with seated service only.

“There’s always something. I look at the TV and think, how am I going to get affected today?” Tony Siwicki, owner of Silver Heights Restaurant told Global News.

Siwicki says since the news was announced Friday, he’s lost in reservations that included nearly 300 customers.

“The worst time ever for these restrictions to be put on us,” he says. “Since the restrictions, all the parties are cancelling. It’s like clockwork with the phone calls.”

The holiday season is a crucial time for restaurant owners, said Shaun Jeffery the executive director of Manitoba’s Restaurant and Food Services Association.

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“With restaurants still reeling from the pandemic, these are times that are monumental to survival of operations,” Jeffery says.

Siwicki says his food order for the holiday season came in Friday afternoon. Hours later the new restrictions were announced.

“All the food’s ordered, all the preparation, all the menu planning, the staffing, the DJ, the karaoke, the Santa Claus. All the extra desserts that we have to prepare and buy, and the extra table clothes and linens….everything is all here, and now it’s all useless.”

This is the fourth time the restaurant industry has been hit with capacity rules before a major holiday.

“We’re short on details and we’re short on why. We understand and we did expect something to come across the board, seeing what other provinces have been doing but we’re very frustrated that our industry has seemed to be targeted,” Jeffery said.

Gyms, movie theatres and sporting events are some of the other businesses affected by the new 50 per cent capacity limit. Swicki questions why restaurants were lumped in.

“It paints a picture, and it’s not a pleasant picture. People are afraid to go to restaurants again,” said Siwicki.

“Other industries are staying open a week before Christmas, full malls and full big box stores. It’s very frustrating to restaurant owners who are just trying to make it to their next rent payment,” Jeffery said.

“I get why they’re doing it, with all the cases out west and out east, I totally understand it’s scary. But you’re tackling the wrong industry, it doesn’t make sense to me,” Siwicki says.

For now, he’s left dealing with extra food in his fridge as the cancellations continue. He and the rest of Manitoba wait on edge until January 11th, when the province says the rules will then be reevaluated.