By Jeff Labine

P.A. restaurants surprised by PST addition

Mar 24, 2017 | 5:00 PM

Restaurants in Prince Albert didn’t expect the provincial sales tax to be on the menu.

Earlier this week, the province announced restaurant meals would no longer be exempt from PST. This means starting April 1 the now six per cent PST will apply to all meals.

Melanie Quintal, the owner of Funky Fresh Café and Bistro, said she was taken by surprise by the announcement.

“I didn’t really understand anything about it until yesterday when customers were saying ‘oh you are going to have to add PST’,” she said. “The government never sent us any literature or knowledge. Unless you are paying attention to the news and what’s going on out there, it just seems kind of shocking.”

She explained most of her customers are business people who work downtown. She said it is hard to tell if her customers would start packing lunches because of the new tax on meals.

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Quintal, who opened her business up in 2013, said at the moment, she isn’t planning on changing her prices.

She added she hopes things don’t change because of the PST.

“Basically, we have to wait and see what happens,” she said. “Do I think I’ll lose customers? I don’t think so. The economy right now is so up and down. I’ve been losing a lot of business in the last few months because of that. In this kind of business, you just don’t know what to expect anymore.”

Danielle Revale, owner of the Bison Café, was also surprised by the announcement.

She said it will have a big impact on her business and other small businesses but she wasn’t entirely sure in what way.

“Regular employees or workers are pretty particular with the way they are spending so this will definitely be a big impact to our business,” she said. “I’m not happy but that is the way it goes.”

She said she will have to wait and see come April 1 if customers continue to come in for something to eat or drink. Like Quintal, Revale wasn’t planning on changing her prices at the moment, but she added she might reconsider later down the road.

Local restaurants weren’t the only ones speaking out against the move.

Restaurants Canada, a national, not-for-profit association, argued the change could mean significant job losses in the industry.

Mark von Schellwitz, the association’s western region vice president, was in Regina for the announcement by finance minister Kevin Doherty.

He told CKOM News adding the PST to restaurant meals is like when the GST was brought in back in 1991. 

“We had the single worse year on record,” he said, noting 32,000 jobs were lost across Canada.

He argued when B.C. brought in the harmonized sales tax, it cost the industry $150 million and pointed out restaurants in Saskatchewan only have a few days before the changes come in.

“It doesn’t leave a lot of time,” he added.
 

With files from CKOM

Jeff.labine@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @labinereporter