The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Creighton and Denare Beach restaurant owners were delighted yesterday to hear that the Saskatchewan government won't implement a seven per cent meal tax this year. Some restauranteurs worried that the proposed tax would have meant less business and result in staff cutbacks. "I'm very pleased," said Jan Gourlay, co-owner of RJ's Restaurant. "Usually, when they say there's a possibility of a tax, it happens, so it's nice when a tax doesn't go through. It's a little bit of a relief for our hiring of summer students, because that means we will probably hire as usual." Teli Keramydas, owner of Creighton's Pizza, called the news "good for business." He said young people employed in the food sector were worried about losing their jobs because of the potential levy, which, along with the GST, would have resulted in a 14 per cent tax on restaurant food. Keramydas said what bothered him about the proposed tax was that it would have started at seven per cent rather than a smaller figure. Both he and Gourlay feel that the the petitions opposing the levy must have had some impact. Last week, the Saskatchewan Legislature received petitions featuring 132,000 signatures. Appropriately, the petitions were stuffed in chicken buckets. "It must have helped a little bit. Let's hope it did," said Gourlay. The idea for the meal tax originated with the Boughen Commission, a special commission that looked at new ways to finance Saskathchewan's education system.
