MONTREAL Sugar shack owners are hoping that a record harvest in 2020 and the coming season will make for a sweeter year, to compensate for the sourness of the pandemic. This year, dining rooms will be shut for the second year in a row and roughly a quarter of Quebec s sugar shacks have gone out of business. But perfect weather conditions means that output has been better than ever and so is demand. “The pandemic, that s a weird situation. People stopped going to restaurants and hotels, they stayed at home, they started cooking more, so they use more maple syrup,” said Quebec Maple Syrup Producers Association spokesperson Simon Trepanier.