Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here this evening. I appreciate your excellent testimony. There was some good information.
I want to start with Mr. Bourbeau of Restaurants Canada.
I'm glad you raised the issue of the escalator tax. I'm sure when our Liberal colleagues and the Liberal government brought in the escalator tax and indexed it to inflation, they were expecting inflation to stick around that 1% or 2%. Now we see that increase at 6.3%.
As much as I think the escalator tax is undemocratic, since you have a tax increase without any public input or a vote within the House of Commons.... You mentioned that $30,000 increase for a typical restaurant that they're going to have to try to make up.
Mr. Bourbeau, I would like your assessment or your opinion.
When you talk about a profit margin of 4% to 5%, that's been cut down to maybe 2% with inflation. What kind of impact is that 6.3% going to have on the typical restaurant?
You said that one in four independent restaurants is not expected to recover. How does that number change on April 1, when that escalator tax goes up to 6.3%?