In what will soon be one of its busiest times of year, Horizons Restaurant sits empty, an unlikely casualty in the war being waged by protesters against the proposed Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
Named for its 360-degree view of the Lower Mainland, the iconic eatery has looked out from its home on top of Burnaby Mountain for almost three decades. It is located at the very top of Centennial Way, the same road where Kinder Morgan is conducting survey work and where protesters have set up a makeshift camp.
On November 20, the RCMP blocked the road, and the restaurant – the only business in the area – has been closed ever since.
Diane Summers, Horizons’ senior manager, said she expects the restaurant to reopen December 6, as this is the date Trans Mountain said the survey work will be completed.
That means the restaurant will have lost two and a half weeks of revenue. It also means lost wages for the restaurant’s 60 employees and lost sales for suppliers.
Summers said she isn’t able to estimate how much this will hurt Horizons’ bottom line.
“I haven’t even tried to cost that out yet,” Summers told Business in Vancouver from her home.
One server, Tessa Harper, is wondering when she’ll be back at work.
“I’m worried about how I'm going to pay my rent,” she told the Burnaby Now. “It’s scary. I’m thinking of going to the food bank.
“I have no income coming in.”
But Harper said she doesn’t blame the protesters and that the police are just trying to keep people safe.
Summers also said she isn’t blaming the protesters and that she knows their fight isn’t against the restaurant or its employees.
“They wholeheartedly believe in their cause,” she told BIV. “Their concern is your children’s children, that sort of thing.”
Still, she said, some employees have felt a bit intimidated. Prior to the police blockade, there were issues with protesters hitting employees’ cars with their hands as the staff was driving to work. Some supply trucks also had difficulty getting up to the restaurant.
Summers said Trans Mountain is aware of the issues the restaurant is having.
“They are quite sympathetic about what’s going on up there,” she said.
“They are concerned about the loss of business at our restaurant during the busy season and the impact it’s had on the staff.
“They want to make sure that at the end of this, we are left whole – employees, the restaurant and that. They’ve been very positive.”
When asked if there will be any kind of compensation from Kinder Morgan for the restaurant, Summers said she couldn’t discuss that.
Ali Hounsell, a spokesperson with the Trans Mountain expansion team, confirmed with the Burnaby Now that the company is in contact with Horizons regarding compensation, but she also wasn’t able to reveal too many details at this time.
“At the end of the day, we will be talking with them about compensation,” Hounsell said.
“Right now, the extent of that is not fully understood yet, so it would be kind of preliminary to put any numbers or understand that because the work is still ongoing. Essentially, what is causing the disruption is the closure of the road and the protesters there, so we’ll have to wait until things are sort of settled to figure out that fully.”
Hounsell explained that it’s not unusual for the company to compensate businesses experiencing disruption.
“Generally those are private negotiations and discussions,” she said. “If there’s a desire to have some kind of interim solution as well, we’d be open to that.”
- With files from Jennifer Moreau, Burnaby Now
@EmmaHampelBIV
