'It’s disappointing': Restaurants say Sask. budget missed the mark
'It’s disappointing': Restaurants say Sask. budget missed the mark
A group representing Canadian restaurants says the Saskatchewan budget missed an opportunity to help the food service industry.
Restaurants Canada was looking for some cost relief as restaurants grapple with skyrocketing food prices, inflation, a labour shortage and recovery from the pandemic.
“The 2023 budget didn't really move the fiscal needle for the restaurant sector. It’s disappointing,” Jennifer Henshaw, Restaurants Canada’s vice-president of the prairies and the north, tells CTV News.
Restaurants Canada says 75 per cent of table-service restaurants are still in debt because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the group is pleased the budget contained no new taxes, it was pushing for measures to help businesses’ bottom lines.
It recommended Saskatchewan follow the lead of other provinces by introducing mitigating measures to soften the impact of the minimum wage increases.
This month, Manitoba introduced the Small Business Minimum Wage Program. The program helps offset the impact of minimum wage increases by offering a one-time lump sum payment of $520 per employee — up to a maximum of $10,400.
Restaurants Canada called for Saskatchewan to reinstate a PST exemption on dining.
In 2017, the province announced restaurant meals would be subject to PST.
Tabled on Wednesday, the province outlined a $1 billion surplus in the budget — which will go towards paying off debt.
“With that $1 billion surplus, they could have gone much farther to provide some cost relief for the hardest hit industries,” Henshaw said.
The finance minister pushed back against spending the surplus because the funding may not be able to continue in the future.
“We have to be very careful as a government to not take one-time revenue and incorporate it and bake it into our year-over-year operational costs … If you’ve baked it into your operational costs, then the following year, where do you find that money,” Finance Minister Donna Harpauer told reporters, following the release of the budget.
Foreign interference special rapporteur David Johnston has resigned, CTV News has confirmed. In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Johnston cited the intense politicization of his appointment and work, as the reason for his coming departure.
Fires across the country are burning millions of hectares of land but what does that really look like? CTVNews.ca compared the blazes to some cities and lakes in the country showing just how big they have gotten.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents, according to an indictment unsealed Friday that alleges that he described a Pentagon 'plan of attack' and shared a classified map related to a military operation.
Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson shocked Britain on Friday by quitting as a lawmaker after being told he will be sanctioned for misleading Parliament.
Despite the alarming facts and figures, experts say Canada is far more reactive than it is proactive when it comes to wildfires and they’re calling for a national campaign on wildfire education to better prepare for the future.
Showers are predicted Saturday over the aggressive wildfire threatening Tumbler Ridge, but forecasters say thunderstorms could sweep through the parched region without bringing any rain.
Air Canada says it made a mistake in rejecting some compensation claims from the thousands of travellers affected by delayed flights due to computer malfunctions.
Disturbing new details about a man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting women in Calgary have come to light, as court documents exposing accounts from his alleged victims have been unsealed.
Calgary police are warning the public about a high-risk offender who was released into the community on Friday after spending time behind bars for a series of sexual assaults.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith named her new cabinet Friday, about two weeks after her United Conservative Party took the majority of seats in Alberta.
A Vaughan man thought he had done the right thing by equipping his brand new SUV with tracking technology offered by the manufacturer — but when it was stolen, he faced plenty of roadblocks sharing that location with the police chasing after it.
Hundreds of counter-protesters gathered near three schools in Ottawa's west end on Friday to take a stand against a B.C. man who is protesting what he calls "gender ideology."
Foreign interference special rapporteur David Johnston has resigned, CTV News has confirmed. In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Johnston cited the intense politicization of his appointment and work, as the reason for his coming departure.
The Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway in Ottawa's west end will be renamed Kichi Zībī Mīkan, if approved by the National Capital Commission's board of directors.
Authorities in West Vancouver say it's lucky more people were not harmed when a driver crashed his car through the entrance of a Whole Foods Friday, coming to a stop in the busy produce section.
An "incredibly volatile" wildfire is moving closer to the B.C. community of Tumbler Ridge and officials are urging the roughly 150 people who have stayed behind—in spite of an evacuation order—to leave immediately.
Montreal police (SPVM) stats for 2022 show that crime went up dramatically in 2022 and, taking COVID-19 pandemic numbers into account, violent crimes have been on the rise overall since 2017. In addition, motor vehicle thefts skyrocketed, having more than doubled since pre pandemic years.
A chain of illegal magic mushroom dispensaries in Ontario is determined to open a location in Montreal this summer despite the threat of a crackdown by Mayor Valerie Plante.
Wildfire officials are sending an additional 20 firefighters to help battle an out-of-control blaze that has burned more than two square kilometres of forest and cut off a major highway on Vancouver Island.
A vehicle detour route that is serving as a lifeline between eastern and western Vancouver Island amid a raging wildfire will be closed for much of the day Friday.
Nova Scotia says it has identified more details about the records stolen in a file transfer service cyber attack, impacting teachers, students and health care workers' records.
A tenant displaced in the downtown Sudbury fire last month said her hotel is denying her request to move her room to a centralized location following an attempted break-in.
About 40 people who say they've been impacted by an increase in crime since the Living Space homeless shelter moved into their neighbourhood have taken their messages to the street.
London, Ont.’s soaring skyline has come with a substantial price tag for local taxpayers. A municipal financial incentive intended to encourage residential construction in downtown London has reimbursed developers millions of dollars to offset development charges in recent years.
