2 - Friday, February 25, 1994 - Norih Shore News

Budget crunches business lunch de

NORTH SHORE restaurateurs
feel the new federal budget has
cut into their business with the
gentleness of a cleaver applied
to prime rib.

By Kate Zimmerman
News Reporter

They anticipate major losses in
trade following the government's
announcement that tax deductions
for business lunches have been
reduced [rom 80% to 50%.

“It's going to hurt the restaurant
industry.” predicted Brendan Mann,

* general manager of The Salmon
House on the Hill.

“Definitely it's going to affect
us,” said Mario Corsi, part-owner
of three North Shore restaurants
the dining room at the Park Royal
Hotel, Corsi Trattoria and Cafe
Roma.

About 75% of Corsi's restau-
rants” lunch trade comes fron busi-
ness people. He guessed that as a
result of the new regulations, the
three establishments might lose as
much as 30% of their total business.

“LT don't feel very happy about
it.” he said. “It seems to me that we,
never get a break.” ,

The vice-president of the B.C. .

Food Services and Restaurant
Association agreed. Pau! Smolen
said the restaurant industry is still
suffering the.effects of the
‘Conservative government's Goods
and Services Tax, which took a bite
out of business, He said the
, Liberals’ move “is going to affect
“the small business person trying to
take clients out fora business lunch
and alsothe truck. driver who
y doesn't usually eat at the white
7 table-cloth establishment.”* ;
The Salmon House is a favorite

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spot for real estate agents showing
off West Vancouver to prospective
buyers, sitid Mann. Reservations
like those comprise about one-quar-
ter of The Salmon House's busi-
ness,

The reason the meal tux deduc-
tion existed at all was to generate
business and Keep the econamy
moving, said Mann, Uf business
stopes off, he added. restaurants

will lose money and that could
mean kiy-olfs inthe industry,

Corsi suggested the tax is unfair
to small business. He sitid big busi-
vess promotes itself by buying
advertisements in popular maga-
zines and writing those off He
believes that. when a restaurant,
which is a small business, serves a
meal, it is promoting itself to a cus-
tomer; the meal is advertising. *

And. he pointed out, “HT sell
fess (ood) Pin going to collect less
GST and pay Tess tixes.””

To Mann, the budget proves that
Camidians have elected themselves
“another government that doesn’t
understand the hospitality: indus-
try.”

Certainty Smolen would agree
that the government doesn’t seem
sympathetic. He said the industry

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got wind of the Liberals’ plans sev-
tral weeks before the budget was
tabled and attempted to let its dis-
upproval be known, ;

Smolen said the issue of the
business funch tax deduction would
be raiscd at a provincial mecting of
his organization March 19,

“We will see if there's anything
we can do to ict the government
know how we feel.” .

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