'What if your favourite restaurant wasn't there anymore?' Thunder Bay businesses join SaveHospitalityCA

A Thunder Bay restaurant owner is thanking people in the northwestern Ontario city for their generosity and support in the last few weeks.

But Bianca Garofalo, who owns and manages Bight, El Tres and Giorg Cucina e Barra restaurants, said small businesses like hers are going to need a lot of help to get through the economic crisis they now find themselves in.

"You put everything into your business. You work long hours and you're there all the time. Your staff is your family and to all of a sudden have that end overnight and that uncertainty of when you're going to be able to get back to normal is extremely scary," she said.

Governments of every level are telling people to stay home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and for many restaurants, especially those without takeout service, it means their business, and their revenue stream has ground to a halt.

COVID-19 pandemic 'huge impact' on restaurants

"It's had a huge impact," Garofalo said, explaining that even with remodelling their business to include takeout she's had to layoff 100 employees.

The pandemic and the efforts to halt the spread of the coronavirus are constantly changing, which means "it's a moving target so you never really know what's coming tomorrow or the next day, so to develop a long-term plan, when you don't know what's going to happen is extremely difficult."

The restaurant industry is "very volatile" and operates, at the best of times, on a low profit margin, said Garofalo. "It's not something you can sustain for a long period of time when the revenue isn't coming in."

Garofalo said restaurant owners in the city have created a Facebook chat group, where they share information about what each business is doing to try to stay afloat, what they've heard about government assistance and what they're doing to make rent and other payments.

'Can feel love, support' of Thunder Bay community

The community, she said, "has been great. We can feel the love and support coming from people."

Garofalo and other Thunder Bay restaurant owners have joined a national group called SaveHospitalityCA that's raising awareness about the economic importance of the industry and the need for more financial aid.

According to the group, Canada's restaurants are a $90 billion industry, and the country's fourth largest employer representing about 1.3 million jobs, not including the 280,000 jobs in related businesses.

"It gives people a chance to learn about the restaurant industry and understand what a big hit that will be if we lose a significant chunk of restaurants and also for people to look around their community and realize that's a huge part of the fabric of their community as well. What would your downtown look like if your favourite restaurants weren't there anymore?"

'Want to be able to keep going'

Garofalo says she knows money is tight for everyone, but people can show their support in ways that don't cost anything.

"Whenever you're in a position to share a post about information that would benefit our cause that would be great. If you are in a conversation with local politicians, anything like that to show support, there's so many of us that put together that it's a huge chunk of Thunder Bay so we want to make sure that we're able to keep going."

You can hear the full interview with Bianca Garofalo on CBCSuperior Morninghere.