Toronto officials, business owners react as city braces for new COVID-19 restrictions

A healthy economy requires healthy people – that’s the message from Mayor John Tory to concerned business owners, such as quick-service restaurants.

With modified, Stage 2 restrictions coming on Saturday, local full-service restaurants are expected to lose 80 per cent of their business, while quick-service restaurants will lose up to 40 per cent.

“it’s very hard for small business owners who have spent thousands, if not millions of dollars on their businesses. Now essentially their rights are almost being taken away and they’ll have to go bankrupt and walk away from these investments,” says Steve Georgiev, a partner with a hospitality group that operates a number of restaurants and bars in downtown Toronto.

Georgiev says the decision will inevitably damage the culture of Toronto and residents in the city will end up paying for it down the road.

“This is what the fabric of Toronto is and all these things are going to disappear. It’s going to hurt the culture of the city and it’s going to hurt the people of the city.”

“For some, even a couple of weeks will be the death now for them,” James Rilett, the VP of Central Canada with Restaurants Canada said.

Rillet says he’s expecting 60,000 employees will now have to be laid off, with 33,000 of those coming out of Toronto alone.

Chair of Toronto’s board of health, councilor Joe Cressy says some businesses, such as malls, remain open in an effort to protect a level of reopening.

“I’d say today marks a turning point in our ongoing fight against the COVID pandemic,” the councilor said.

“This is an important step. It will go a long way to ensuring that we not only save lives and protect our hospital sector but also keep our schools open.”

“For some, even a couple weeks will be the death knell for them.” A rep for Restaurants Canada talks about the impact of a 28-day stop to indoor dining at Toronto, Peel, and Ottawa restaurants to fight COVID-19. 60,000 jobs expected to be affected. @680NEWS pic.twitter.com/Kf4TsFVsLg

— Mark Douglas (@DouglasCityNews) October 9, 2020

Meantime, the city’s top doctor says she understands this move will impact some, more than others.

“The province has taken the necessary actions at this stage premised on the data that we have and the best available evidence using the experiences of other jurisdictions,” Eileen de Villa said on Friday.

“It will take at least a few weeks before we really start to see the full impact of the public health measures being taken. I would ask the people of Toronto to have some faith, that this is the right path, knowing what we experienced from the Spring, we know what makes a difference in terms of controlling this virus.”

De Villa stresses not to just watch case counts but to look at certain aspects of the data, such as positivity rates and lab testing as the second wave continues to be felt across the city and other regions.