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December 22, 2020FOOD SERVICES AND DRINKING PLACES, OCTOBER 2020 
NOTE: Statistics Canada noted that the October data for Prince Edward Island (PEI) was too unreliable to be pusblished. As a result, information for PEI is excluded from this analysis.
Month-over-Month (Oct 2020 vs Sep 2020, seasonally adjusted)
- Nova Scotia food services and drinking places receipts increased 1.2% to $124.1 million.
- Canada's food services and drinking places receipts declined 8.9% to $4.7 billion.
- Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador were the only two provinces reporting monthly increases.
- Quebec posted the largest monthly decline (-20.1%) in percentage terms.
Year-over-Year (Oct 2020 vs Oct 2019, seasonally adjusted)
- Nova Scotia food services and drinking places receipts decreased 15.7%.
- Canada's food services and drinking places receipts decreased 27.6%.
- All provinces reported year-over-year decreases in food services and drinking place receipts, with
- Newfoundland and Labrador (-10.5%) reporting the smallest decline and
- Ontario (-36.6%) reporting the largest decline in percentage terms.
*For PE, the year-to-date totals reflect the Jan-Sept 2020 and Jan-Sep 2019 time period.
Year-to-Date (Jan-Oct 2020 vs Jan-Oct 2019, seasonally adjusted)
- Nova Scotia food services and drinking places receipts decreased 24.0% (-$352.6 million).
- Canada's food services and drinking places receipts decreased 27.1% (-$17.3 billion).
- All provinces reported year-to-date decreases in food services and drinking place receipts, with
- Saskatchewan (-17.3%) reporting the smallest decline and
- Ontario (-30.4%) reporting the largest decline in percentage terms.
Nova Scotia Sectors
Nova Scotia Year-to-date Sales by Establishment Type (Jan- Oct 2020 vs Jan-Oct 2019, unadjusted for seasonality)
Compared with Jan-Oct 2019, the reductions in food service and drinking place receipts have been most pronounced for Nova Scotia's full-service restaurants (-$241.0 million). In year-to-date percentage terms, the declines have been more severe for drinking places (-51.3%) and special good services (-42.1%), with a smaller decline for limited service eating places (-11.1%).
- Limited-service eating places, decreased 11.1% (-$83.4 million)
- Full-service restaurants decreased 41.2% (-$241.0 million)
- Special food services decreased 42.1% (-$39.9 million)
- Drinking places -alcoholic beverages decreased 51.3% (-$21.8 million)
Long-run Trend
Canada and Nova Scotia (2012 to 2020, seasonally adjusted)
Nova Scotia's Food services and drinking places month over month sales declined sharply in March 2020 (-32.5%) and April 2020 (-38.7%). Recovery began with rapid gains in May 2020 (+31.8%) and June 2020 (+34.7%). Compared to February 2020, Nova Scotia's October 2020 Food services and drinking places sales were still -14.9% below their pre-pandemic levels.
After five consecutive monthly gains. National food services and drinking places sales declined 8.9% to $4.7 billion in October 2020. This decline was mostly due to the second wave of COVID-19 restrictions introduced in several provinces. National food services and drinking places sales were still 27.6% below their pre-pandemic levels. All provinces report food services and drinking places remain between -6.9% and -36.8% below February 2020 levels.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table 21-10-0019-01 Monthly survey of food services and drinking places (x 1,000)
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