Dyan Solomon, co-founder and owner of Olive et Gourmando, poses inside the restaurant in Old Montreal on Oct. 19, 2023.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
As Montreal restaurants adapt to rising costs and impending deadlines to repay loans issued during the pandemic, one well-known chef says she worries about the future of the city’s famed dining scene.
Dyan Solomon, who owns three restaurants in the city, said that in the past, Montreal’s famously low rents meant chefs could open their own places, and restaurants were able to thrive in part because customers had the disposable income to eat out.
But as rents rise, along with the price of food and labour, she worries the independent restaurants that have become the hallmark of Montreal’s dining scene won’t survive, leaving mostly chains and fast-food eateries, with only the most elite fine dining establishments on the higher end.
“That’s really sad and depressing, but it looks a little bit like … that is what will happen,” she said. “I don’t see how it can’t. You’re not going to pay $40 for a sandwich.”
Solomon, who opened her first restaurant, Olive et Gourmando, in Old Montreal 25 years ago, said she’s never seen anything like the price increases of the past few years, which have pushed the cost of “literally everything” up between 20 per cent and 30 per cent. “Restaurants are struggling, businesses are struggling, but we know our customers are struggling too, so it is a really difficult thing to navigate.”
Solomon, who also owns Foxy, west of downtown, and Un Po Di Piu in Old Montreal, has built a reputation for working with local suppliers. She is committed to maintaining the quality of her food, but she said others might be tempted to use lower-quality ingredients to keep their prices stable.
Dominique Tremblay, a spokeswoman for the Quebec restaurateurs association, said many of her members have been left without the money to pay back federal government loans issued during the COVID-19 pandemic. People are going out less and wanting to spend less when they do go out, she said, and rainy summer weather only exacerbated the problem.
Those loans have to be repaid by Jan. 18 in order for businesses to have some of the loan forgiven, a deadline recently pushed back from Dec. 31.
“We’ve lost 4,000 restaurants since the beginning of the pandemic and there may be others that will close,” she said, adding that her organization wants the deadline to be extended until the end of 2024.
Despite the economic headwinds, new restaurants are still opening in Montreal. Andrew Whibley and Pablo Rojas, who recently opened Bar Dominion in downtown Montreal, say their new establishment was shaped by the economic climate.
Whibley said that because they opened in a space that had been occupied by a restaurant that closed during the pandemic, they were able to save more than $1 million on renovations. The pair said they’re also attempting to appeal to a broad market, with lower prices and regular specials to keep the place full.
“It’s only doable because we have the chance of being downtown, where we know we’ll be able to hit the volume that we need to still make ends meet,” Rojas said. “But if you were to do that on a smaller scale, I’m not sure it would be possible.”
Rojas, who also co-owns Provisions, a steak house and wine bar, as well as a neighbouring butcher shop of the same name that serves sandwiches, said that adapting to higher costs may mean using cheaper cuts of meat, serving smaller portion sizes and finding ways to save money on takeout packaging.
Rojas said he’d like to see the federal government forgive the loans and look at them as a one-time cost necessary to keep businesses afloat and protect jobs.
“At the end, it’s the staff that’s going to lose. It’s people who were expecting a raise, who deserve a raise, that will not get it because there’s no more money,” Rojas said.
Montreal food writer J.P. Karwacki said he’s noticed rising restaurant prices, as well as restaurants adapting by cutting back their opening hours, though he hasn’t noticed a decline in the quality of the dishes.
Fixed-price multi-course meals and comfort foods could become more common on Montreal menus, he said, as will shorter menus, as restaurateurs look to maintain tighter control over inventory.
But he thinks dining out is too deeply ingrained in Montreal’s culture for people to abandon restaurants altogether.
“We love to go to restaurants, we love to go to bars, we like to gather. And I would be very surprised if that was one thing that we were willing to sacrifice. The question is about how it’s going to change,” he said.
Solomon is adjusting, looking to smaller menus that will require fewer kitchen staff and drawing on Asian influences to reduce the use of increasingly expensive ingredients that had been staples on her menu, such as cheese.
But even though dining rooms look like they’re back to normal after the dark days of the pandemic, few restaurateurs have been able to recover financially from the closures, she said. “I think the assumption is it’s all good now, and that’s really not true, it would take a very long time to come back from this kind of financial disaster for restaurants.”
TORONTO – TD Bank Group, which is mired in a money laundering scandal in the U.S., says chief executive Bharat Masrani will retire next year.
Masrani, who will retire officially on April 10, 2025, says the bank’s, “anti-money laundering challenges,” took place on his watch and he takes full responsibility.
The bank named Raymond Chun, TD’s group head, Canadian personal banking, as his successor.
As part of a transition plan, Chun will become chief operating officer on Nov. 1 before taking over the top job when Masrani steps down at the bank’s annual meeting next year.
TD also announced that Riaz Ahmed, group head, wholesale banking and president and CEO of TD Securities, will retire at the end of January 2025.
TD has taken billions in charges related to ongoing U.S. investigations into the failure of its anti-money laundering program.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
“Communication is one of the most important skills you require for a successful life.” — Catherine Pulsifer, author.
I’m one hundred percent in agreement with Pulsifer, which is why my evaluation of candidates begins with their writing skills. If a candidate’s writing skills and verbal communication skills, which I’ll assess when interviewing, aren’t well above average, I’ll pass on them regardless of their skills and experience.
Why?
Because business is fundamentally about getting other people to do things—getting employees to be productive, getting customers to buy your products or services, and getting vendors to agree to a counteroffer price. In business, as in life in general, you can’t make anything happen without effective communication; this is especially true when job searching when your writing is often an employer’s first impression of you.
Think of all the writing you engage in during a job search (resumes, cover letters, emails, texts) and all your other writing (LinkedIn profile, as well as posts and comments, blogs, articles, tweets, etc.) employers will read when they Google you to determine if you’re interview-worthy.
With so much of our communication today taking place via writing (email, text, collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, ClickUp, WhatsApp and Rocket.Chat), the importance of proficient writing skills can’t be overstated.
When assessing a candidate’s writing skills, you probably think I’m looking for grammar and spelling errors. Although error-free writing is important—it shows professionalism and attention to detail—it’s not the primary reason I look at a candidate’s writing skills.
The way someone writes reveals how they think.
Clear writing = Clear thinking
Structured paragraphs = Structured mind
Impactful sentences = Impactful ideas
Effective writing isn’t about using sophisticated vocabulary. Hemingway demonstrated that deceptively simple, stripped-down prose can captivate readers. Effective writing takes intricate thoughts and presents them in a way that makes the reader think, “Damn! Why didn’t I see it that way?” A good writer is a dead giveaway for a good thinker. More than ever, the business world needs “good thinkers.”
Therefore, when I come across a candidate who’s a good writer, hence a good thinker, I know they’re likely to be able to write:
Emails that don’t get deleted immediately and are responded to
Simple, concise, and unambiguous instructions
Pitches that are likely to get read
Social media content that stops thumbs
Human-sounding website copy
Persuasively, while attuned to the reader’s possible sensitivities
Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: AI, which job seekers are using en masse. Earlier this year, I wrote that AI’s ability to hyper-increase an employee’s productivity—AI is still in its infancy; we’ve seen nothing yet—in certain professions, such as writing, sales and marketing, computer programming, office and admin, and customer service, makes it a “fewer employees needed” tool, which understandably greatly appeals to employers. In my opinion, the recent layoffs aren’t related to the economy; they’re due to employers adopting AI. Additionally, companies are trying to balance investing in AI with cost-cutting measures. CEOs who’ve previously said, “Our people are everything,” have arguably created today’s job market by obsessively focusing on AI to gain competitive advantages and reduce their largest expense, their payroll.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that most AI usage involves generating written content, content that’s obvious to me, and likely to you as well, to have been written by AI. However, here’s the twist: I don’t particularly care.
Why?
Because the fundamental skill I’m looking for is the ability to organize thoughts and communicate effectively. What I care about is whether the candidate can take AI-generated content and transform it into something uniquely valuable. If they can, they’re demonstrating the skills of being a good thinker and communicator. It’s like being a great DJ; anyone can push play, but it takes skill to read a room and mix music that gets people pumped.
Using AI requires prompting effectively, which requires good writing skills to write clear and precise instructions that guide the AI to produce desired outcomes. Prompting AI effectively requires understanding structure, flow and impact. You need to know how to shape raw information, such as milestones throughout your career when you achieved quantitative results, into a compelling narrative.
So, what’s the best way to gain and enhance your writing skills? As with any skill, you’ve got to work at it.
Two rules guide my writing:
Use strong verbs and nouns instead of relying on adverbs, such as “She dashed to the store.” instead of “She ran quickly to the store.” or “He whispered to the child.” instead of “He spoke softly to the child.”
Avoid using long words when a shorter one will do, such as “use” instead of “utilize” or “ask” instead of “inquire.” As attention spans get shorter, I aim for clarity, simplicity and, most importantly, brevity in my writing.
Don’t just string words together; learn to organize your thoughts, think critically, and communicate clearly. Solid writing skills will significantly set you apart from your competition, giving you an advantage in your job search and career.
Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. You can send Nick your questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.
MONTREAL – Politics, public opinion and salary hikes south of the border helped push Air Canada toward a deal that secures major pay gains for pilots, experts say.
Hammered out over the weekend, the would-be agreement includes a cumulative wage hike of nearly 42 per cent over four years — an enormous bump by historical standards — according to one source who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The previous 10-year contract granted increases of just two per cent annually.
The federal government’s stated unwillingness to step in paved the way for a deal, noted John Gradek, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it plain the two sides should hash one out themselves.
“Public opinion basically pressed the federal cabinet, including the prime minister, to keep their hands clear of negotiations and looking at imposing a settlement,” said Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University.
After late-night talks at a hotel near Toronto’s Pearson airport, the country’s biggest airline and the union representing 5,200-plus aviators announced early Sunday morning they had reached a tentative agreement, averting a strike that would have grounded flights and affected some 110,000 passengers daily.
The relative precariousness of the Liberal minority government as well as a push to appear more pro-labour underlay the prime minister’s hands-off approach to the negotiations.
Trudeau said Friday the government would not step in to fix the impasse — unlike during a massive railway work stoppage last month and a strike by WestJet mechanics over the Canada Day long weekend that workers claimed road roughshod over their constitutional right to collective bargaining. Trudeau said the government respects the right to strike and would only intervene if it became apparent no negotiated deal was possible.
“They felt that they really didn’t want to try for a third attempt at intervention and basically said, ‘Let’s let the airline decide how they want to deal with this one,'” said Gradek.
“Air Canada ran out of support as the week wore on, and by the time they got to Friday night, Saturday morning, there was nothing left for them to do but to basically try to get a deal set up and accepted by ALPA (Air Line Pilots Association).”
Trudeau’s government was also unlikely to consider back-to-work legislation after the NDP tore up its agreement to support the Liberal minority in Parliament, Gradek said. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, whose party has traditionally toed a more pro-business line, also said last week that Tories “stand with the pilots” and swore off “pre-empting” the negotiations.
Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau had asked Ottawa on Thursday to impose binding arbitration pre-emptively — “before any travel disruption starts” — if talks failed. Backed by business leaders, he’d hoped for an effective repeat of the Conservatives’ move to head off a strike in 2012 by legislating Air Canada pilots and ground crew to stick to their posts before any work stoppage could start.
The request may have fallen flat, however. Gradek said he believes there was less anxiety over the fallout from an airline strike than from the countrywide railway shutdown.
He also speculated that public frustration over thousands of cancelled flights would have flowed toward Air Canada rather than Ottawa, prompting the carrier to concede to a deal yielding “unheard of” gains for employees.
“It really was a total collapse of the Air Canada bargaining position,” he said.
Pilots are slated to vote in the coming weeks on the four-year contract.
Last year, pilots at Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines secured agreements that included four-year pay boosts ranging from 34 per cent to 40 per cent, ramping up pressure on other carriers to raise wages.
After more than a year of bargaining, Air Canada put forward an offer in August centred around a 30 per cent wage hike over four years.
But the final deal, should union members approve it, grants a 26 per cent increase in the first year alone, retroactive to September 2023, according to the source. Three wage bumps of four per cent would follow in 2024 through 2026.
Passengers may wind up shouldering some of that financial load, one expert noted.
“At the end of the day, it’s all us consumers who are paying,” said Barry Prentice, who heads the University of Manitoba’s transport institute.
Higher fares may be mitigated by the persistence of budget carrier Flair Airlines and the rapid expansion of Porter Airlines — a growing Air Canada rival — as well as waning demand for leisure trips. Corporate travel also remains below pre-COVID-19 levels.
Air Canada said Sunday the tentative contract “recognizes the contributions and professionalism of Air Canada’s pilot group, while providing a framework for the future growth of the airline.”
The union issued a statement saying that, if ratified, the agreement will generate about $1.9 billion of additional value for Air Canada pilots over the course of the deal.
Meanwhile, labour tension with cabin crew looms on the horizon. Air Canada is poised to kick off negotiations with the union representing more than 10,000 flight attendants this year before the contract expires on March 31.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
