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Good Karma Cafe in Horseshoe Bay and Home Restaurant in Hope are two popular pit stops reporting a sharp decline in business following new travel restrictions in the province.

Author of the article:

Joanne Lee-Young

Release date:

April 25, 2021 • • 46 minutes ago • • Read for 2 minutes • • BC Ferries said last Friday it would “refuse to travel to customers who travel for non-essential reasons on routes that cross regional zones,” as defined in the public health code. Photo by Francis Georgian /.PNG

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Two popular pit stops on the street, one a Horseshoe Bay Cafe and the other a diner in Hope, that just stopped by the first weekend of business after the introduction of new travel restrictions in BC

“It’s been very, very slow since Friday,” said Samantha Rosas, a clerk at Good Karma Cafe, which operates a take-away window in BC Ferries’ terminal in Horseshoe Bay.

It is usually packed with passengers lining up for coffee and a fresh cinnamon roll after clearing the ticket booths before boarding a sail.

“It’s the first time it’s this slow. I would say it’s dropped by half or more than half of the customers, ”said Rosas.

She said it was just as good that the cafe would be closed for a couple of weeks if a new wall is installed between the shop and the mountain cliff beyond.

BC Ferries said last Friday it would “refuse to travel to customers who travel for non-essential reasons on routes that cross regional zones,” as defined in the public health code.

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Customers traveling on routes that operate within the same regional zone are reminded that they should avoid non-essential travel.

Non-essential reasons are vacations, weekend trips and tourist activities, visits from family members or friends for social reasons and leisure activities in accordance with the public health order.

BC Ferries announced that there will be traffic stats over the weekend that can be compared later. A quick scan of the real-time information on the Current Conditions page on Sunday revealed that for most journeys crossing regional zones, the total deck space for cars about an hour before a lunchtime sailing time was nearly 70 percent, most with slightly less availability (59 Percent) for the route from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen.

The new travel restrictions consolidate BC’s five health authorities into three regions and prohibit non-essential travel between them. That shuffle moved the town of Hope from Fraser Health to the Interior Health region.

This means a big drop in customers who typically exit from Highway 1 and head to the Home Restaurant in Hope for a plate of comfort food like a beef dip or an open-faced turkey sandwich. The place is also known for its old fashioned lemon meringue, coconut cream, and other cakes.

“It was about a 50 percent success this weekend,” said manager Lana Popp. “We usually rely on locals and travelers. We get one or the other traveler, but now it’s mostly locals and they can only (come) so much. “

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She laid off a dozen employees and “tried to find other ways to make less of everything”.

Popp has meals for sale in take-out containers and “take-and-bake” cakes, but “people like them more when we bake them.”

Three highways meet in Hope, and travelers either travel north on the Coquihalla, east towards the Kootenays, or west towards the lower mainland. Popp said other business owners there are all complaining about the situation.

“It’s like being in a ghost town. We’ll just bunker down and make it through May 25th (when the restrictions end), although I don’t expect that date. “

jlee-young@postmedia.com

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