Restaurants, bars face patio permit delays

Letter from city blames wait times on staffing issues

Toronto’s bar and restaurant owners can hardly wait for patio season to hit full stride. But for many, waiting is all they can do — for CaféTO permit approvals.

“On Friday, we got approved,” said Pablo Mozo, owner of La Cubana restaurant. “But we got approved to submit more documents.”

Restaurant owners across the city say delays in processing applications for patio extensions are frustrating them, just as the crucial summer season kicks off.

The city insists delays are stemming from detailed reviews of applications to ensure road safety and other concerns.

The CaféTO program is meant to give restaurants and bars the chance to expand seating onto public property and create a more vibrant scene along city sidewalks. It was launched in 2020 to help eateries through the pandemic and proved extremely popular.

When it started, it didn’t charge fees and more than 800 restaurants took part. Now, fees and certain requirements for patios have been introduced.

Earlier this year, the city announced 500 businesses had submitted applications for curbside patios, and said those approved could begin installation in midMay. But Mozo says a letter he just received from the city says due to staffing issues there are longer wait times.

Knowing why his application is taking so long doesn’t alleviate the anxiety that comes with looking at an empty space where customers could be sitting. And he can’t plan without knowing more details about how much space he’ll be allowed to use.

“People like me have to build or at least retrofit old platforms to fit into this, but we still don’t know yet,” he said. “There’s a lot of co-ordinating and planning to do and they’re just pushing us to the limit.”

Last year, Mozo had a wooden patio specially built and stored it through the winter. He was hoping to use it again this year, but at the rate the process is moving he fears it will be “well into the summer” by

the time it is set up.

Sean Coates, a business consultant for several restaurants in Toronto, said some restaurants received rejection letters only to be told when the owners challenged them that they were sent in error. Other eateries, he said, haven’t heard a thing.

There are about 100 patio days a restaurant can depend on and an establishment can potentially see a solid spike in revenue during those days, Coates said, using a 40-seat establishment as an example.

“A CaféTO patio is not huge, but if that’s 20 extra seats that you’re adding, that’s basically a 50 per cent bump in revenue for those hundred days,” Coates said. “Typically people on the patios, they’re drinking, and that’s the high-margin thing for bars.”

As inflation, staffing shortages and the economic fallout from the pandemic continue, 53 per cent of restaurants in Ontario are either losing money or breaking even, said Tracy Macgregor, vice-president of Ontario for Restaurants Canada.

That figure contrasts with just 10 per cent pre-pandemic, Macgregor said. Across Canada, bankruptcies for restaurants are up 116 per cent, she added.

Delays in patio approvals are adding to the concerns restaurant owners are already dealing with, she said.

An emailed statement from Toronto’s media relations department said the delays are meant to ensure proper precautions are being carried out for the patios.

“The installation of traffic safety equipment citywide is a process that takes several weeks and some restaurants will receive their curb lane closure equipment and café permits before others, similar to previous years,” it read.

The city said it anticipates a smoother process in the future as the plans being approved now will be set and renewable.