Restaurants Canada, an organization representing the food services industry, says that thousands of restaurants have already been forced to close for good, and more are likely to follow.
"It's going to be a complete destruction of some segment of the business," said David Lefebvre, Restaurants Canada vice president, federal and Quebec.
"I would say especially the small independent operators are having a really, really hard time … Those that did not have the capacity to go into delivery and take out."
He also points out that, unlike other businesses, stock in a restaurant consists of perishable goods, meaning that those forced to close, or cut back significantly, lost a large part of their inventory.
As well, restaurants are quite labour intensive and need more employees per dollar of revenue than other industries, Lefebvre said.
"The amount and the quantity of people that had to be taken care off, laid off, furloughed was quite higher compared to gross revenues than other businesses," Lefebvre said.