BURST
“Restaurants are at the heart of every community in B.C. and almost 50 per cent of them are struggling,” says Ian Tostenson, the president of the Restaurant and Foodservices Association.
“Food, labour and rent costs are rising, and customer traffic is down.”
It’s a trend that has been gaining momentum since COVID and the BCGEU strike last year that shuttered liquor distribution and pushed many operators to the brink of bankruptcy.
“The strike was particularly difficult because it came at a time when provincial employment regulations were already forcing restaurant operators to cut back on employment,” Tostenson says.
According to Douglas Magazine, the industry dropped 10,800 positions between September 2023 and the end of 2024.
“Seventy per cent of restaurants in the province have seen a drop in customers and profitability is down for a mind numbing 81 per cent of restaurants,” says Tostenson, who is calling on provincial government to reduce payroll taxes, encourage the federal government to do the same, return all or part of WorkSafeBC’s $2.1 billion surplus to employers and implement recommendations from Save B.C. Restaurants, much of them to do with red tape.
Tostenson joined a Conversation That Matters about the state of the province’s food services sector.
Learn More about our guests career at careersthatmatter.ca
Join us Jan. 20 for a Conversations Live on immigration.