Catering: Decrease in permits and increase in bankruptcies since the pandemic

More and more restaurant owners are having difficulty making ends meet, as proven by the declining number of restaurant permits.

Consequently, there have been approximately 2,000 fewer permits each year since the outbreak of the pandemic. Thus, at the end of 2023, there were 26,713 permits issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Quebec (MAPAQ) compared to 28,456 permits on the same date in 2019.

Furthermore, the Quebec Restoration Association also noted an increase in bankruptcies with 406 cases in 2023 compared to 216 cases in 2021. The situation has not improved since there were 68 cases last January, 67 cases in February, and 55 cases in March.

These numbers can be explained in particular by the end of government aid while restaurant owners now have to repay loans granted to them during the pandemic.

“Some institutions are finding it more difficult to get there or may have made bad calculations, meaning we expected to be able to repay these loans by imagining that the situation might come back.” [comme] “Before the pandemic,” the director of public and government affairs at the Restoration Quebec Association explained to TVA Nouvelles.

According to her, one way to help restaurant owners a little is to encourage payment by debit card instead of credit card, because debit card fees are lower for them.