File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters / Aaron Schulze

COVID-19

Jobs critic hammers NDP government for not attaching restaurant supports to new restrictions

Mar 30, 2021 | 3:03 PM

KAMLOOPS — The B.C. Liberal opposition critic for jobs and economic recovery is calling on the province to step up immediately with supports for the restaurant and hospitality sector after the latest round of pandemic-related restrictions.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry unveiled a suite of restrictions Monday (Mar. 29), meant as a three-week ‘circuit breaker’ to help put a stop to rising COVID-19 case counts.

Those restrictions include ending indoor dine-in food service, only allowing take-out, delivery and patio service.

Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone says the restaurant sector was blindsided by the restrictions, which took effect just hours after they were announced, at midnight Tuesday morning.

“When you have health measures that come in with no notice whatsoever and that results in restaurants and others in the hospitality sector incurring costs that they cannot recoup — which is largely related to lost perishable inventory — government should put some cash on the table to help restaurants,” Stone told CFJC Today.

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Premier John Horgan committed to coming through with some sort of support for restaurants, but did not give any details on what that might look like nor a timeline for their implementation.

“I find it unbelievable that John Horgan would stand in front of British Columbians and announce additional health measures that will serve to, again, hit restaurants and many other businesses in the hospitality sector really hard without any kind of announcement of additional supports for those businesses,” said Stone.

“There are a lot of restaurants and hospitality businesses that are, regrettably, not going to make it to end of this pandemic. It will largely be because government supports for this sector have been long in coming and have been modest.”