The Saskatchewan NDP urged the province to enact measures to save summer 2021 and boost the province’s economy.

One proposal was the removal of PST on restaurant meals to help the tourism sector during reopening.
Trades and Economic Development Minister Jeremy Harrison says the province has worked hard to make sure restaurants stay open during the pandemic, adding they’re in great shape for the summer.He claims the sector has a high degree of understanding that because of the approach the government has taken they have been able to operate and keep employees employed.

It’s unclear who in the restaurant sector the minister has been talking to. Restaurants Canada says restaurants in this province need a sector-specific survival package to bring back over nine thousand jobs; a quarter of the province’s food service workforce. Mark von Schellwitz, Restaurants Canada Vice President, Western Canada says, “If subsidies are scaled back too soon, they won’t have the working capital they need to transition from survival to revival.”

According to the April Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada, more than two thirds of the jobs still missing from the Canadian economy in the wake of COVID-19 are from the food service sector.

Schellwitz says, “The vast majority of food service businesses have been operating at a loss or barely breaking even throughout the entire pandemic, with nearly half consistently losing money for more than a year.”

[ckrm/gw]