Some restaurants closing dining rooms in wake of vaccine passport

Sudbury -

The vaccine passport has only been in place for two days in Ontario and some restaurants are making difficult decisions to respond to the new pandemic measure.

Some restaurants in Sudbury have made the difficult decision to close their dining rooms and turn to a take-out model as a method to deal with the new rules.

Deluxe on Regent Street has been a Sudbury staple for more than 50 years. Its owner recently made the difficult choice to close the dine-in option and tells CTV News it was simply a question of logistics.

"What we decided was to go back to our roots and just have take out and drive-thru only," said owner Marsha Smith. "I think the passport is a new issue and we're just trying to figure out how feasible it is for us to have someone working the door and asking for identification."

Smith said one of the big problems has been staffing levels, meaning she doesn't have the staff to allow for it. She's got even less now that many of her employees have had to return to school.

She adds staffing levels have been a big problem for restaurants throughout the city as they look to fill jobs.

"We're playing it by ear, day-to-day, and we're offering our guests the best experience at Deluxe that we can offer them right now which is eating in your car, listening to the radio, or going home with your family," Smith said.

"This has been a very tough decision. We work with a great staff and have great customers that we serve in this part of town in Sudbury and we miss them sitting out front, meeting their friends, and talking to us for a few minutes. It was really tough."

Over on the other side of town, Aisle Nine has been gaining attention for a social media post it made regarding the vaccination passports.

In the post, owners Erik Smith and Shanel Petretti call the new rules discriminatory and unconstitutional, as a result, they are choosing to keep their dining room closed.

"We felt it was pretty important to hit social media because we respect diversity of opinion and diversity in general and we want to be able to provide our services to everybody while keeping the focus on safety. So no one can be at risk in either scenario and everyone can enjoy our burgers at the same time," Petretti said.

They've only been at their new location for about a month and tell CTV News they've been touched by the mostly positive response.

"I personally feel it's important for people not to bring in that division. We're all people, we're all together. If we all work together, this can ... I personally feel, this is us doing our part," Petretti said.

"It's been overwhelming support which has been really great and surprising considering how divisive and radical the political environment is. We don't even have to say political environment so much as society in general. Seeing that support come our way for playing the middle ground was very good because we don't want to be the cause of division," Smith said.

Restaurants Canada vice-president James Rilett said restaurants throughout Canada have had to make some tough decisions on how to navigate the latest set of rules.

He's not surprised to see some closing their dining rooms and adds that's not unique to Sudbury.

"If it wasn't this we may be closed, so it's the lesser of two evils really. It's not ideal, no one really wants to do it, but if it's the only way we can keep restaurants open and avoid a total lockdown as we had before, I think we'll have to put up with this for now," said Rilett.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who had opposed bringing in the vaccine passport until recently, said this is just a temporary measure and it will be removed as soon as it's responsible to do so.

Ford told reporters this week, he still has his concerns about the measure but his greater concern would be if the province had to close down again or Ontario were to see a surge in numbers.