Restaurant industry sees little in budget to boost employment
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 19, 2011
ST. JOHN’S – Restaurant operators have little to cheer about in Newfoundland and Labrador’s budget. In an enviable surplus position due to high oil and mineral prices, the government has instead chosen to spend money towards another election campaign.
“This budget is a lost opportunity,” says Luc Erjavec, Atlantic Canada Vice President for the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA). “Government spending has increased dramatically, with little benefit to the hundreds of restaurants in the province that employ Newfoundlanders and stimulate economic activity in nearly every community in the province. Unfortunately, this budget will do little to drive down Newfoundland’s stubbornly high unemployment rate.”
Newfoundland’s restaurant industry:
- is one of the province’s largest employers, with nearly 15,000 employees;
- employs 4,500 people under the age of 25, representing 16% of total youth employment;
- generates total sales of $790 million; and
- encompasses more than 1,000 restaurants, caterers and bars.
According to a recent Ipsos poll for Kraft Foodservice Canada and CRFA, 22% of Canadians were first employed by the restaurant industry.
CRFA is one of Canada’s largest business associations, with more than 30,000 members representing restaurants, bars, caterers, institutions and other foodservice providers. Canada’s $60-billion foodservice industry employs more than one million people in communities across the country.
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