Simcoe County businesses brace as federal alcohol tax goes into effect
Local businesses are bracing for the Federal Government's increase in alcohol tax.
"We're not happy that there's an increase in the tax because even in downtown Barrie, we've had the pandemic we've had construction downtown, so we've gone through a litany of upheavals," said Colin Johnson, Manager of Donaleigh's Irish Public House.
Although the tax has now been capped at two percent instead of its initial 6.3 percent, some say that's still not enough.
"I think any increase in this time of day is punishment," said Walter Vaz, Heritage Estates Winery and Cidery Owner. "Certainly, we believe that any increase is going to affect us in a negative way in both our winery property and the hospitality."
Vaz said small businesses and the hospitality industry suffered the most from the pandemic, with many still trying to recover.
"We were one of the first to be locked down, we were one of the last to open up. I took on huge debts just to survive and now we're faced in the marketplace where the playing field is being artificially increased," he said.
However, that's just one increase businesses will deal with this year. The provincial government will raise the minimum wage from $15.50 an hour to $16.55 in the fall, a 6.8 percent increase tied to inflation.
"We recently had to deal with a larger jump than that in the server and bartender wage, which just increases the bottom line in the cost of doing business, any further increase in the minimum wage, it's going to hurt us," said Johnson.
Both Donaleigh's and Heritage Estate Winery say they don't plan to raise their prices right now and will find other ways to supplement the increases.
However, if costs continue to rise, they may be left with no other option.
Ontario's minimum wage is set to rise on Oct. 1.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.