Angry Saskatchewan restaurant owners say they will fight the proposed application of the provincial sales tax on meals they serve.
Several of the 40 owners and employees who attended a public meeting in Regina Jan. 20 issued emotional pleas to leave the tax off restaurant meals. The suggestion was made in the recently released report of the commission examining ways to fund Kindergarten to Grade 12 education. The report also suggested a one percent hike in the tax.
Marvin Symons owns three small businesses in Estevan, including an A & W and another restaurant. He said the proposal would raise $200 million for the province, but cost him $180,000. He wondered if the tax changes would raise more for the province than anticipated.
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“Who’s fooling who?”
Several people asked why there was no mention of adding PST to restaurant meals and snacks in the commission’s interim report.
“I believe it was probably left out because there was an election,” Symons said.
Commissioner Ray Boughen dismissed that notion, saying the idea surfaced during the second round of consultations in late fall as the commission sought different options.
Boughen maintains that adding the tax to something that is optional – eating in a restaurant – is fairer than taxing property.
Symons disagreed, saying restaurant meals are not a luxury.
“People eat food, not dirt,” he said.
Many agreed with the idea of restructuring school divisions to find savings.
The owner of Don’s Place in Stoughton predicted “catastrophic” job loss in the restaurant industry if the plan goes ahead.
Don Richardson employs 21 people, six of them under the age of 24. He said he would have to cut two jobs.
“The young people in this province without jobs would be tripping over each other trying to get out of this province,” he said.
Boughen said he doesn’t think an extra tax would keep many people from restaurants, noting most other provinces already have such a tax.
Moose Jaw area farmer Phil Lewis told the meeting he respected that small restaurateurs felt under attack, but noted that education taxes on farmland increased 49 percent after the last provincial reassessment.
Farmland was at one time a source of revenue, but is now a sitting duck for taxation, he said. He likened his land to a registered retirement savings plan.
“My RRSPs are being taxed every year whether there’s any revenue off that land at all,” he said.
Boughen’s work is now complete, and it’s up to the provincial government to decide what to do. Learning minister Andrew Thomson has said a decision is some months away.
