Canada is poised to lose an estimated 4,000 restaurants across the country this year, according to the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.
Director of the lab Sylvain Charlebois said in a report that the numbers were based on current cost trajectories, balance sheet conditions, and consumer behaviour.
“We expect Canada to lose roughly 4,000 restaurants on a net basis in 2026,” he wrote, adding the process was “already underway.”
“The problem is not that restaurants are failing suddenly. It is that the sector has been operating in a prolonged state of economic stress since 2021, masked temporarily by extraordinary policy interventions,” Charlebois said, adding that many “pandemic-era supports” such as wage subsidies, loan deferrals and tax postponements “kept thousands of establishments afloat.”…