Calgary area restaurant blames NDP government for closure
Posted Jan 15, 2018 9:06 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A high-end Calgary area restaurant is blaming Alberta’s NDP government for its demise.
After 14 years of serving customers just west of the city, Bears Den Restaurant & Lounge has announced its closing its doors at the end of the month.
General Manager and part owner Scott Winograd calls it a death of a thousand cuts.
He tells CityNews, the carbon tax and minimum wage increases combined with changes that require him to pay statutory holiday rates even when closed, have made it impossible for the business to stay open.
“Our entire value chain is suffering from the farmers to the suppliers to the delivery drivers. Those companies are passing their costs onto us as well,” Winograd said.
He said the victims of these added costs are not just business owners, but the people they employ.
“At the end of the day, we’re faced with: well do we increase our prices by 25, 30 per cent in order to stay alive, or do we do the inevitable, which is closing our doors?”
Winograd said it’s a shame all this is being piled on just as the economy is beginning to pick up again.
“I would never open a business under this regime,” he said.
Labour Minister Christina Gray issued a statement responding to the comments:
“The increase to Alberta’s minimum wage helps ensure that the servers and kitchen staff who put food on our tables when we enjoy a night out can also afford to put food on their own tables. While it is unfortunate to hear that the owners of this restaurant have decided to close their doors, we know Albertans continue to enjoy dining out with their friends and families. Restaurant receipts reached an all-time high in Alberta last year, and employment in the province’s food services sector is recovering from the low of the recession. In 2017, dozens of new restaurants opened in Calgary including many local favourites that expanded by opening second or third locations.”
