MONTREAL -- Restaurants and bars seem likely to be hardest hit by the new rule requiring face masks in public indoor places, according to a new study.
Quebec implemented a rule requiring everyone to wear a mask in indoor public places July 18 to start the annual two-week construction holiday in the province.
Twenty-two per cent of the 1,523 Canadians Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies surveyed that they will avoid bars and restaurants with a mandator mask rule.
The number was identical for the 1,001 Americans surveyed.
Alberta (30 per cent), the prairie and Atlantic provinces (28 per cent) and Quebec (27 per cent) had the highest number of people saying they would avoid bistros, while Ontario was lowest at 17 per cent.
Those aged 55 and over are most likely to avoid such establishments with 31 per cent between 55 and 64 years old saying they will not go and 28 per cent of those 65 and over feeling likewise.
Almost one-in-10 men (nine per cent) said they would outright refuse to wear a mask with the highest age group being those aged 18 to 34 (11 per cent). Five per cent of women said they will refuse to wear a mask.
Other places people said they would avoid if forced to wear a mask were on public transit (11 per cent), in offices and schools (11 per cent) and in stores and shipping centres (nine per cent).
