Feb. 12, 2026 "Canadian restaurants struggling to turn a profit, new report says": Today I found this article by Abby Hughes on CBC:
Your favourite restaurant might be losing money due to
slower foot traffic
and rising costs,
according to a new survey.
A report from Restaurants Canada out today surveyed 220 of its members in late 2025 about their restaurant businesses.
The results found that 26 per cent of restaurants surveyed were operating at a loss as of November 2025,
while another 18 per cent were just breaking even.
Together, that means nearly half — 44 per cent — of respondents weren't profitable,
compared to 2019 when just 12 per cent were in that same financial position.
Those figures were a little better than in 2024,
however, when 53 per cent of restaurants surveyed were losing money or breaking even.
“It is a very concerning number that is going to impact jobs.
It's going to impact shifts.
We're going to see more restaurant closures,”
Kelly Higginson, president and CEO of Restaurants Canada, told CBC News.
She says restaurants are struggling with rising costs across the board, on everything from
food
to rent
to items like cutlery.
In the report,
food
and labour costs
were the two factors respondents were most concerned about
— 89 per cent said they were worried about labour costs
and 88 said the rising cost of food was an issue.
Inflation has had an especially big impact on food prices.
In December, inflation for grocery items was up five per cent
compared to the same time the year before,
while that figure was at 2.4 per cent for items across the board.
'It's mentally exhausting': chef
Mike von Massow, a food economist and professor at the University of Guelph, says he’s not surprised that some restaurant owners in Canada are struggling.
He says the rising cost of food in particular hits them twice —
both as an increase to the business’s costs
and because consumers feel the pinch at the grocery store and might choose to dine out less often.
“Restaurants struggle with the fact that they compete with the grocery store,” von Massow said.
“If we're squeezed [on groceries],
we go to the restaurant less,
and if they increase prices to adapt to that,
then they dig themselves an even deeper hole.
So it's really a difficult situation for restaurants.”
It's a struggle Frederic Chartier is familiar with. He’s the owner and chef at Beyond the Gate, a French restaurant in Shelburne, Ont., but recently he’s been wearing a lot more hats.
He’s also the dishwasher,
accountant and,
on slower days, a server
because there aren’t enough customers spending money for him to employ more people.
“Eight years in, you wouldn’t think that it would be a problem
and we'd be able to fill the place every day,
and instead it's going the opposite way,”
Chartier said.
“We're surviving with dinner [service] but it's challenging.”
Chartier says the years before the COVID-19 pandemic
and immediately after
were good for business,
but the last few have been a struggle as fewer customers are walking through his door.
He’s since cancelled his lunch and Sunday brunch service,
and recently picked up a part-time job at a burger joint in Shelburne to help bring in more cash.
“It's mentally exhausting,” Chartier said.
“Up until three years ago, we had staff. It was great.
I had a dishwasher every weekend.
It was good, it was fun.
Now it's just work, work, work trying to get by.”
Some owners might raise prices
With such tight margins,
restaurant owners surveyed said they expected to raise their prices in 2026 by four per cent on average.
Higginson at Restaurants Canada says it's a difficult balancing act for their members,
who need to cover their costs
but also retain customers who might not come back if things get too pricey.
“We know Canadians are struggling with affordability.
So while we might see that four per cent increase in menu prices,
that definitely does not reflect the increase in operations for our businesses,”
Higginson said.
She adds that some of their members have been trying to pull other levers
and avoid raising prices,
including offering value meals
or high-end restaurants adding mid-level options for customers who are looking to save.
Previous surveys by Restaurants Canada have indicated that
as many as three in four Canadians are going out to eat less often,
in part because of the cost.
Chartier says he’s introduced price increases sparingly in the past, a dollar or two at a time,
to compensate for rising costs on his end.
But those additions do add up.
He says a beef tenderloin that was $45 three or four years ago is now $60,
even despite him taking a smaller margin.
A few years ago, Beyond the Gate introduced a three-course “recession menu” for $30 to try and attract customers looking for value options,
which helped for a while before his customer base “lost interest,”
Chartier said.
He hopes the government might introduce measures that would help his customers with the cost of living,
so that they have more free cash for things like dinners out.
“Put more money into customers' pockets so they can go out and spend it,” Chartier said.
The report said that restaurant owners surveyed got a bit of a break
with the federal government’s GST holiday early in 2025
and from a strong summer of domestic tourism.
But Higginson hopes more help from the government might come.
Her organization would like to see federal GST removed from all food,
including meals served at restaurants.
“We operate [restaurants] in every single community in the country,”
Higginson said, which means that when restaurants are hurting, it has a wide impact.
“You're going to feel it in every community,” Higginson said.
“You're going to see job loss,
you're going to see shifts cut
and that's going to have a direct impact on the economy
and the communities that we continue to serve.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/restaurants-struggling-financially-9.7086668
Feb. 18, 2026 "Grigio and gambling? Saskatoon wine bar adds VLTs as food and beverage sales slump": Today I found this article by ·on CBC:
In a cozy side room near the back of POP Wine Bar in Saskatoon, VLT machines jingle under the glow of red light, giving customers a kitsch Las Vegas vibe as they sip ice-cold martinis and slurp back oysters.
Owner Christie Peters said it’s been a fun addition to her establishment, which typically sells high-end natural wines, champagnes, and caviar.
But the real reason she added VLTs is to raise revenue.
“I thought it was going to be some nice passive income that would subsidize what we're doing here and bring in more clientele,” she said.
Peters owns both POP and Primal Pasta in Saskatoon.
She said neither turned a profit last year.
The chef has worked in restaurants since she was 14 years old and is well aware of how slim margins are in the industry.
But right now, she said, things are bad.
“I've never seen profit margins so low in my entire life,” she said.
According to Restaurants Canada,
44 per cent of Canadian restaurants are breaking even or losing money.
“Frankly, five years ago, that was just 12 per cent,”
said Matt Triemstra, federal affairs vice-president of Restaurants Canada.
“It’s a pretty bleak landscape out there for restaurants.”
Triemstra said 75 per cent of Canadians are dining out less often due to the higher cost of living.
He also said restaurants are paying more for
food,
operating supplies,
insurance
and labour.
“We are one of the higher-esteemed restaurants in the city.
But it is like a treadmill and I'm running on it as fast as I can
and I'm worried that it's just going to keep accelerating,”
Peters said.
She believes the slump has a range of causes —
U.S. tariffs,
the cost of groceries,
wages,
and an increasing reliance on technology like scheduling and delivery apps.
She also sees customers tightening their budgets
and consuming less alcohol.
Peters said it’s forcing her to get creative. In addition to adding VLTs,
she’s launched a non-alcoholic botanical soda company called Be Magic to help diversify her income.
“I'm trying to boost that company up to try and subsidize my other companies
because the non-alcoholic market is very big right now.”
But Peters still worries: will that be enough?
“I'm trying everything I can. It feels like we've been doing this on a volunteer basis for the last couple of years,” she said.
'Just surviving'
Harry Singh, owner of Da Samosa 'N Curry in Regina is also doing what he can to reduce expenses.
“I think it's a very stressful time,”
he said.
“I stopped working in the kitchen and I tried to run the restaurant with my staff.
But now I'm going back to the kitchen again after a few years because I want to save my money."
He said costs are going up and when he tries to raise prices, he loses customers.
“We are not making money, he said. “Just surviving these days.”
Peters said her hope that VLTs would provide some income did not turn out to be a winning gamble;
they aren’t bringing in money.
“I do believe our guests are responsible gamblers. They win a little bit of money and then they don't put it back into the machines, which is great for community health, but not good for the pocketbook.”
Peters is worried about the number of restaurants struggling to stay open, but she is committed to finding a way forward.
“We're still here, we're still afloat, we're figuring it out.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatoon-vlt-revenue-9.7089038
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