Ampersand Café workers’ jobs down the drain after bankruptcy

A sea of Tim Hortons coffee cups covers the tables outside the now shut Ampersand Café in the Halifax Central Library.  

Both cafés in the downtown location and the one at the Keshen Goodman Public Library in Clayton Park have closed following the bankruptcy of MetroWorks, a non-profit organization behind many social enterprises including Ampersand Café, Stone Hearth Bakery and Common Roots Urban Farm.  

All employees working under MetroWorks were swiftly let go when the organization declared bankruptcy on Mar. 6.  

Sophia Tallboy is a second-year student at Dalhousie University who worked at the Ampersand Café. She told The Signal she was laid off a day before her shift. 

“I got that message on Slack walking into my last class of the day,” she said, laughing.  

There was a lot of confusion, she said.  

“It was mostly people responding: ‘So, wait, do we go to work tomorrow?’ ” she said. “But it was effective immediately.”  

Tallboy is from a small town in British Columbia. When she moved to Halifax, finding work was difficult. Ampersand Café was the only job she could secure.  

“Here, you apply to 500 places, and the only thing you’ll hear back is a rejection from their stupid AI hiring manager,” she says.  

Katya Silvester was also let go from her job at Ampersand Café.  

She said that she worked there while maintaining an A-minus average to keep her scholarship and juggling two other jobs to be able to pay rent.  

“Ampersand was my most stable source of income,” she says.  

She says the job worked as a “buffer for the blow of our housing crisis.” 

Both Tallboy and Silvester are now uncertain of their summer prospects in Halifax, searching for jobs that will take them on short notice.  

Tallboy said she fears for the future of a lease she would like to sign.  

“Landlords really don’t like it when you’re unemployed,” she said.  

Lars Osberg, an economics professor at Dalhousie University, told The Signal that the underlying issue is high unemployment rates across the board.  

“The labour market in general is much more demanding than it was 30 and 40 years ago,” he said. 

“That’s particularly true when there’s as high unemployment rates as there are currently.” 

While students are affected, he says there are people who may take a harder hit.  

“University students are usually a pretty privileged, pretty capable bunch of people,” he says. “So, it’s easier for them to get back and into the labour market than it is for someone with a disability — maybe physical, emotional, or with a bad employment record.” 

That was MetroWorks’ specific focus — assisting people who face challenges finding employment elsewhere. As well as jobs, they also provided language instruction and programs for newcomers.  

“So that’s why you need a place that gives people a little bit of work experience and gets them started on the job ladder,” Osberg says.  

“If the public sector doesn’t do it, it often doesn’t get done.” 

MetroWorks did not provide a statement to The Signal. However, on their website, they said that after years of financial setbacks, they have “reached a point where continuing operations is no longer sustainable.”