The GST tax holiday over the Christmas season and into the new year did not do much for overall retail sales but it appears to have an impact on the food and beverage business.
We have just received January’s figures for sales or revenues in restaurants and bars and it provides some interesting tidbits. For example, food prices charged in restaurants was down. That was the effect of tax removal.
We may not have felt it here quite as much as other regions where the GST and PST are harmonized into the HST. We saw a 5-percent reduction in taxes while many provinces enjoyed a larger break. And it showed up the national numbers.
Here in Saskatchewan, January was not an especially memorable month for the industry. Sales, while up over the same time a year ago because of inflation, were down from December which also enjoyed the tax holiday effect. Even so, that is not a surprise given December’s importance to the industry but this January was the lowest in 10 months for the sector, even with inflation pushing up prices.
