Industry committee  We provide entry-level, first job experience for hundreds of thousands of youths. We provide a flexible work environment for students who want to save for or contribute to their education, who like the flexible hours that allow them to work part-time and maintain their school res

Industry committee  Absolutely, and we often hear people say if a young person has McDonald's Restaurants of Canada on their resumé, that's something other employers recognize, that these people have portable job skills. You mentioned McDonald's Restaurants of Canada. I have to say that the preside

Industry committee  I'm going to have to check with our economist on the exact percentage, but we do have some numbers in terms of, for every dollar that the food service generates, how many additional dollars are generated within the economy. I can't remember the exact number, so instead of providi

Industry committee  In terms of training, again I don't have a percentage, but I can reinforce what Diane is saying in terms of the emphasis and the importance of it. For our members out in western Canada, where the labour shortage is critical, one of the huge frustrations is the amount of time th

Industry committee  One of the things we have to look at is, are we comparing apples to apples? Are we talking about true value-added taxes, or are we talking about taxes where there are significant exemptions and inequities? For instance, if it really was a true value-added tax, the rate would actu

Industry committee  My key point is that we should fix the flaws in the GST. That's what we would like to see. We would like to see the same food, purchased at different establishments, not treated differently. That's our main point on the GST. Let's fix the flaws in the GST. We are the one industr

Industry committee  It's very difficult, given the significant challenges and obstacles. I guess that's one of the reasons—and I want to emphasize this—that there's the concern about GST-PST harmonization. In Saskatchewan and B.C., you have no provincial sales tax on restaurant meals. So you're goin

Industry committee  The dollar certainly is very significant, and the chart I have doesn't even reflect what's happened in the last quarter. Of course, we've seen a further increase in that deficit between Canadians travelling to the U.S. and Americans travelling to Canada. So yes, the new passpor

Industry committee  I think if you went to any community across Canada, they would feel that their community also deserves to be marketed. I think there are efforts being made to market the communities and cities in the country—

Industry committee  Okay, I will do so. The slide you're referring to was developed by the Saskatchewan Tax Commission, which was looking at GST-PST harmonization. What they looked at was all of the products that are outside the current Saskatchewan sales tax base and what would happen if GST-PST w

Industry committee  The most important reason for us is that we see it as a flawed tax, an inequitable tax, an unfair tax, and any reduction in the tax reduces, to a certain degree, that inequity and that unfairness. But we see the damaging impact of taxes on consumers' willingness to spend, and dis

Industry committee  Thank you for the question. It's interesting that you raise the issue of tipped employees, because tipped employees in our industry can earn hundreds of dollars of additional income on one shift. They are one of the entry-level employee positions that it's less difficult to recru

Industry committee  The third key issue we would like to highlight is GST-PST harmonization. The GST is the federal policy that has had the single greatest negative impact on the food service industry in the past 20 years. In the year the tax was imposed, real food service sales dropped by 10.6%, an

Industry committee  Secondly, GST distorts the marketplace. GST is bad for tourism, and we can get into the details of this during the question and answer period. The GST is regressive. GST-PST harmonization will result in a multi-million-dollar shift of taxation from businesses to consumers. I'm

Industry committee  Absolutely.