Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. We appreciate the opportunity to be here today.
Justin Taylor and I represent the $60 billion, one million employee food service industry. Today we're here to talk about the $5.8 billion Toronto restaurant industry and the impact of the G-20 on our sector.
In Toronto there are over 8,000 food service establishments, employing 85,000 people. In the neighbourhoods most impacted by the G-20, our percentage of employment is as high as 8%. The industry suffered significant losses as a result of the G-20. We're an industry with very skinny profit margins, 3.2% on average. So when the industry is experiencing a major loss on one of the weekends that is typically one of the busiest of the year, it's really devastating. It's been four and a half months since the G-20, and our members have not received compensation yet.
So we're here today to ask for the committee's assistance in providing quick and fair compensation to our restaurant operators for the losses they experienced.
I'm going to ask Justin Taylor to review for you the CRFA survey that we conducted to assess the impact of the losses on our industry.