Work stoppage possible as WestJet issues lockout notice to maintenance engineers' union
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
When a fried chicken chain opened its first location in Atlantic Canada, it was so popular it had to cut back hours.
The Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen that opened a few weeks ago in a Halifax suburb has reduced its schedule because of high demand that left staff scrambling as customers queued up for hours.
"Due to industry-wide staffing challenges, the store is open for one less hour than before," Popeyes spokeswoman Emily Ciantra said in an email.
"The restaurant aims to be back to its regular hours by early June."
The bizarre case of a restaurant so popular it needs to close early underscores a pervasive issue facing restaurants in Canada: A labour crunch.
"The new Popeyes that opened actually had to ... cut back hours just to give their people a rest," said Gordon Stewart, executive director at the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia.
Restaurants across the country are reducing hours and condensing menus as persistent staff shortages and spiking costs threaten to derail the industry's comeback from crushing pandemic restrictions.
The decision by many restaurants to scale back operations comes despite an upswing in business as diners return to restaurants in full force.
"Customers are back. But when you don't have staff to work all the shifts, you start cutting back hours," said Stewart.
"There are very few restaurants now that are running seven days a week and full hours."
Canada's restaurant industry was slammed by two years of shutdowns, repeated layoffs and strict capacity limits. About 13,000 eateries across the country closed permanently.
The situation prompted an exodus of workers from the sector as people sought more steady incomes, switched fields or went back to school. Canada also welcomed fewer immigrants during the pandemic, newcomers that sometimes find work in the restaurant industry.
Compounding the issue now is Canada's rock-bottom unemployment rate, which Statistics Canada said hit 5.2 per cent in April.
As the lucrative patio season ramps up, the restaurant industry expects staff vacancies will rise to 210,000 across the country by this summer, said Olivier Bourbeau, vice-president of federal affairs with Restaurants Canada.
"It's extremely difficult for restaurants to find staff," he said. "We just don't have enough workers."
Job openings abound across the industry in both fast food and full-service restaurants.
But the problem is most acute in kitchens.
"Red seal chefs, sous-chefs, line cooks -- that's where the shortage is really hurting restaurants," Stewart said.
During the pandemic some restaurant operators blamed government subsidies for the lack of staff, but the ongoing shortage suggests a more protracted and complex issue. Some workers in the industry have said the long hours, unstable schedules, low wages and gruelling conditions -- especially in a hot, busy kitchen -- are to blame.
Meanwhile, restaurants are also facing spiralling costs.
Statistics Canada reported the annual inflation rate hit 6.7 per cent in March, while food costs -- a key input for restaurants -- increased even more, with prices for dairy, pasta, meat and cooking oil all soaring.
"From gasoline to a steak, it's all gone crazy," Stewart said. "Costs are up right across the board."
Some eateries are eliminating less profitable meals like breakfast or lunch, offering fewer menu items overall and closing during the slowest days of the week to cut down on waste. Others are offering smaller portion sizes, rethinking the so-called "centre of plate," typically beef, chicken or fish, or even just ordering less food at one time.
"If you don't sell something by its (expiry date) it's gone, you have to throw it out," Stewart said.
"So they're ordering less. They're watching the inventory, controlling it, watching the plate size and designing smaller tighter menus."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2022.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on Saturday.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Auston Matthews was back on the ice with his teammates Saturday.
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.