Prince George restaurants are having to quickly pivot as British Columbia has suspended indoor dining due to rising COVID-19 case numbers across the province.
However, the city has stepped up to help businesses set up outdoor patio dining spaces during the ban.
The new public health order amendments were announced by Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry during a news conference on Monday (March 29).
Indoor dining is now off the table in B.C. until April 19, but the new restrictions do not affect restaurants from offering outdoor or patio dining, take-out and delivery services.
“Our climate here is different than a lot of part so the lower mainland and we are not blessed with having year around patio potential opportunities,” says Prince George Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Corrigall to PrinceGeorgeMatters on the challenges facing local restaurants in the weeks ahead.
“There’s only a select few that can accommodate that and their patios are small which limits that space so when they come out with orders like they did on Monday with no advance notice to these businesses it becomes quite challenging.”
In an effort to help local restaurants, cafes, and pubs as they transition to outdoor food services, the City of Prince George announced it is waiving all fees associated with temporary permitting requirements for the use of outdoor patios.
The city adds it's also streamlining the approval process so that businesses can be up and running faster, which will be reassessed on April 19 and will be based on provincial guidelines.
It's been just over a year since indoor dining at B.C. restaurants was first banned during the initial wave of COVID-19 infections.
Those restrictions were lifted at the end of May 2020 but with limited seating capacity and regulations around health protocols and customer contact tracing.
Last summer, cities like Vancouver fast-tracked applications for temporary outdoor dining spaces in order to help restaurants recoup some of the lost revenue from reduced indoor dining capacities and other pandemic-related financial woes.
“We saw other communities that had road closures, after a period of time, so that they could establish licensed seating areas in the streets which then allowed restaurants expand their capacity and have dining outdoors,” said Corrigall.
In terms of individuals in the community supporting local businesses through this period, Corrigall notes there’s a lot of ideas being generated.
Support PG, for example, will be doing a Free Food Fri-Yay giveaway contest over the next three weeks to help support local restaurants and the Chamber has launched a program featuring a different restaurant every day through April 19.
“I saw some other unique things, like here’s an opportunity to start your Christmas shopping early and buy some gift cards to save them for your family and friends, or get those gift cards now and gift them to people so they can engage with those businesses sooner rather than later,” says Corrigall.
“Maybe it’s time to delete SkiptheDishes and Uber Eats, if you have access to a vehicle, and call the restaurants directly and order from them directly so all the profits to go them.”
Corrigall says he’s hearing a lot of frustrations from the local business community but one of the most important things business owners can do is to communicate their struggles.
“The more information we get from businesses the more property we can advocate on their behalf. If we are not hearing from our members or from the community about what the challenges are or maybe what some of the opportunities are it challenges us to create the advocacy.”
Local restaurants that want to establish temporary patios on the sidewalk or street in front of their business are encouraged to contact transportationengineering@princegeorge.ca for support in applying for a temporary street occupancy permit.
Businesses can also reach out to the chamber of commerce for support at 250-562-2454 or through email at admin@pgchamber.bc.ca.
