Restaurants Canada calls on next feds to help bring employment to pre-pandemic levels

Luc Erjavec said the industry is having extreme difficulty finding employees here in Nova Scotia and across the country

HALIFAXtoday\ Chris Halef

Restaurant Canada’s Atlantic vice president is calling on the next federal government to make a commitment to help the restaurant industry return to pre-pandemic levels of employment.

Luc Erjavec told NEWS 95.7’s The Todd Veinotte Show the industry is having extreme difficulty finding employees here in Nova Scotia and across the country.

“Prior to the pandemic, there were about 60,000 vacancies in the food service industry,” he said. “Today, even though we’re not fully open, it’s over double. We’re sitting at about 130,000 job vacancies.”

According to the latest Labour Force Survey data from Statistics Canada, food service and accommodation accounted for close to half of all jobs added to the Canadian economy in June and July but there are still nearly 230,000 fewer workers in the food service sector than before the pandemic.

“We cannot find employees to have our businesses operating the way they should which is creating an extreme amount of employees and owners to try to get through this crisis,” said Erjavec.

Erjavec says there are a number of things the next federal government can do to help bolster the industry.

“We have to look at all of the federal work programs, everything from the wage subsidy in terms of extending that to industries that are hard-hit like restaurants,” he said. “We have to look at some of the immigration programs and make them more effective, less bureaucratic and more efficient.”

According to Restaurants Canada, at least 10,000 restaurants have closed since March 2020.