Canadian restaurants struggling to turn a profit, new report says
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.
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.”
