Missing Mondays: Provincewide worker shortage forces restaurants to rethink Monday service
Inside Victoria’s iconic Dutch Bakery, a small bell rings every time an order comes through the kitchen.
Since Labour Day weekend, the bell hasn’t rung once at the Fort Street diner on a Monday.
"Being open six days a week was just no longer a functional option for us,” said co-owner Michelle Bryne.
“So, since the Labour Day weekend we've been closed Mondays."
Like so many restaurants in B.C., the pastry proprietor has been forced to shift hours of operation because of a major lack of staff.
The Dutch Bakery is now closed Sundays and Mondays so the staff it has kept through the pandemic doesn’t burn out.
"This is certainly not how we wanted to do business,” Bryne told CTV News Vancouver Island.
Victoria’s Downtown Business Association has watched as the restaurant industry has been pushed to new limits during the COVID-19 crisis.
It says many food service operators are now toying with hours in a way they have never before, all in hopes of staying afloat with so few staff.
"It's not like they've been having a great year-and-a-half,” said Jeff Bray, the business association’s executive director.
“It's been very tight all along and this is just another impact of COVID-19.”
Province-wide, the B.C. Foodservice and Restaurant Association estimates the industry is short more than 40,000 workers.
"It's going to be 10 years in B.C. before we have enough workers to handle our own economy,” said Ian Tostenson, the association’s president and CEO.
“That's why immigration is so important and why we are in such trouble now."
The Development Bank of Canada recently released a survey suggesting 55 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses cannot find enough staff.
The survey found the lack of workers is stunting the financial growth of the businesses in a major way.
Back at the Dutch Bakery, owners say hiring staff is nearly impossible right now, meaning they don’t expect Mondays will be coming back any time soon.
"Definitely for the foreseeable future; there just aren't people who want to work," Bryne said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Here's why Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next
Here's what you need to know about why movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction was thrown out and what happens next.
Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.
Humanist group threatening to sue Vancouver over council prayers
The B.C. Humanist Association has threatened legal action against the City of Vancouver for allowing prayers at council, following a similar warning issued earlier this month to a smaller community on Vancouver Island.
LHSC performs a Canadian first in robot-assisted direct lateral spine surgery
Spine surgery may never be the same for people with chronic back pain and other physical ailments.