'We don’t want to increase our prices': Restaurants call for cap on booze tax
Restaurants across Canada have joined others in the hospitality industry in calling for a cap to the annual alcohol excise tax — a tax tied to the rate of inflation.
Restaurateur Cleopatra Camara, who owns two Sweet Onions Bistro locations in London, said it’s a choice between losing money or customers.
“My concern is that they will then decrease the frequency of when they go out, how much they spend, whether they order alcohol with their meal or not,” she said.
The alcohol excise tax is set to increase an estimated 4.7 per cent on April 1.
That would be the largest increase in 40 years. According to Camara, that’s a lot for a small business to absorb all at once.
“That can cost us thousands of dollars in the end, over the course of a year. Even those slight percentages are significant enough,” she said.
According to Restaurants Canada, 62 per cent of restaurants in Canada are operating at a loss or just breaking even. That compares with just ten per cent before the pandemic.
With inflation at 6.3 per cent one year ago, the federal government capped the alcohol excise tax at two per cent. Restaurants Canada is calling for the same cap to be implemented this year.
“When inflation is low at between one and three per cent, it’s not too bad. But when it gets really high like last year and this year, it’s really costly for everyone to pay it,” said Restaurants Canada vice president Max Roy.
“Right now, there’s a lot of tough decisions that are being made. This is not only related to the excise tax on alcohol but it adds up to it.”
The alcohol “escalator” tax automatically increases federal excise taxes on beer, wine and spirits every year on April 1.
According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), taxes already account for about half the price of beer, 65 per cent of the price of wine and more than three quarters the price of spirits.
The CTF adds the increase will cost taxpayers about $100 million this year and next year.
“We don’t want to increase our prices to the degree that it will prevent people — again — from coming in,” said Camara.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6976926.1721883767!/httpImage/image.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.png)
DEVELOPING Alberta's request for federal assistance approved after fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on social media that Ottawa has approved Alberta's request for federal assistance after a fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park and its townsite late Wednesday.
BREAKING Loblaw, George Weston to settle class action over bread price-fixing for $500 million
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and its parent company George Weston Ltd. say they have agreed to pay $500-million to settle a class-action lawsuit regarding their involvement in an alleged bread price-fixing scheme.
EXCLUSIVE One address, 76 foreign currency dealers: Inside Canada's money service business 'clusters'
An IJF and CTV News investigation has found dozens of cases across Canada where multiple money services businesses (MSBs) are incorporated at the same address, sometimes without the knowledge or consent of the location's actual occupant. One money laundering expert calls it an 'abuse of the system.'
U.K. police officer suspended after video appears to show a man being kicked in head
A British police officer was suspended from all duties Thursday after a video was posted on social media that appeared to show an officer kicking and stamping on the head of a man lying on the floor of a terminal at Manchester Airport.
Barrie-Innisfil MPP 'blacked-out' and crashed car into window of child care centre
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
Norad intercepts Russian and Chinese bombers operating together near Alaska in apparent first
The North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska Wednesday in what appears to be the first time the two countries have been intercepted while operating together.
Biden explains why he ended re-election bid in Oval Office address
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a solemn call to voters to defend the country's democracy as he laid out in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
Jasper mayor says alert system to be reviewed after message 'glitch'
More than 25,000 people have been displaced from Jasper National Park since wildfires started to threaten the picturesque corner of Alberta Rockies on Monday, but the mayor of its namesake municipality says not everyone received an evacuation alert when it was sent out.
Unclaimed bodies are piling up in Newfoundland. A funeral director blames the government
A funeral director in St. John's says the bodies piling up in freezers at Newfoundland and Labrador's largest hospital likely belong to people whose loved ones couldn't get enough government help to pay for a funeral.