Businesses reflect on the impacts as GST holiday comes to an end

Canada’s two-month tax holiday ends at midnight Friday – with some businesses arguing the program wasn’t worth the work it created.

Friday was the last day of the Goods and Services Tax holiday, and there are mixed feelings about how much it helped Canadians.

In December, CTV News spoke with the co-owner of Benny’s Market Janet Benedetti when the tax break was rolled out, and she expressed frustrations with the timely process as a small business owner.

On Friday, CTV News checked in with Benedetti to see if the extra work paid off.

“It was insignificant. Some people were totally unaware, some just completely forgot,” Benedetti said about her experience.

She shares that even for those who were aware of the holiday, it did not seem to push customers to want to buy any more than needed.

Ferne, a shopper at Benny’s and small business owner herself, said she also did not notice much of a change.

“I didn’t really see a difference either way when I bought my cleaning supplies or grocery shopping, no,” said Ferne.

According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, only about five per cent of small business saw stronger sales compared to this time last year. Four per cent of businesses in retail and 15 per cent in hospitality saw an increase in their sales.

The restaurant industry saw benefits, with transactions jumping by almost eight per cent.

Restaurants Canada is pleased with the results and say the tax initiative helped create 34,000 jobs and brought in an additional $1.5 billion in sales. They’re calling on the government to extend the tax holiday.

“We are calling on the removal of GST on all food. Prepared food, restaurant meals. At the end of the day food is food and it is not good public policy to have GST on food,” said Kelly Higginson from Restaurants Canada.

Carson Binda from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says Canadians deserve more.

“At the end of the day this temporary GST holiday is a drop in the bucket as far as what we need from government. This didn’t go nearly far enough to give families or businesses the support they need right now. What families need is for Ottawa to step up and cut taxes permanently,” said Binda.