Regina restaurant owner bracing for higher energy bills

A restaurant owner in Regina says he’s worried about having to pay the federal carbon tax on utility bills next month.

“We definitely use a lot of gas, we use a lot of water, we use a lot of utilities,” said Tim Rogers, owner of Lancaster Taphouse.

“There’s only so much you can do. We need to keep the ovens going. We need to keep the place lit. We do everything we can — we go to LED lights, we keep our energy use as low as we can, but the demand is pretty high for restaurants.”

He said the last two years have not been favourable to small businesses, with the introduction of the PST and the lack of progress on pipelines in western Canada.

Last month, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business released results of a poll it took in November. It said 80 per cent of respondents didn’t think they would be able to pass on costs to customers.

Rogers thinks that way as well.

“The options are, see how it impacts the bottom line and make a decision. Do we need to adjust our menu prices? We hope we don’t have to do that. Every time you raise prices, you lose customers and that’s not something we don’t like to do either,” he said.

His staff also face uncertainty.

“They understand that shifts are harder to come by. As costs raise, they understand that we have to be frugal and we have to be careful with their hours and what we can afford to pay them.”

The federal government expects to raise about $2.3 billion from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick and 90 per cent of the money will be returned through household rebates.