Winterlicious meets tax holiday: Toronto restaurants hope double deals bring back diners
Festival runs Jan.31 to Feb. 13, while the GST/HST tax holiday ends Feb. 15
Toronto's Winterlicious, which sees hundreds of local restaurants offering affordable fixed price meals, is always a good time for foodies to find a deal.
But this year, it also overlaps with the federal GST/HST tax holiday.
And with in-person dining down due to the rising cost of living across the city, many restaurants are hoping the annual winter food festival coinciding with the final weeks of the federal tax break will bring people back to the table.
Derek Valleau, co-owner of Pukka, an Indian restaurant on St. Clair Ave. West, told CBC Toronto that a bump in business will be especially welcome after a difficult year for the industry.
"Getting people in the restaurant has been a challenge," Valleau said. "So something like this is definitely going to help get people back in and out socializing in restaurants again."
Winterlicious is a city-run food festival that has run annually since 2003, except during the pandemic. This winter, more than 230 restaurants are participating, offering three-course lunches from $20 to $55 and dinners from $25 to $75. The festival runs until Feb. 13 and a full list of participating restaurants can be found on the city's website.
And with the federal government's tax holiday ending Feb. 15, customers are set to save even more than usual.
Tax break already having positive impact, says restaurateur
"People are, particularly today, they are looking for a great deal," Valleau said. "This is a great opportunity for friends to get together. They don't have to break the bank and they can go out and support restaurants in their own community and hopefully have fun and a great meal at a reasonable price."
Valleau says the tax break has already had a positive impact on business in the early days of 2025.
"We've seen a small uptick," he said. "We've seen some other things like people having maybe a second glass of wine or sticking around for dessert."
Mina Buzio says the tax break has also been beneficial for Bar Bacan, the Argentinian-Venezuelan restaurant she co-owns in Roncesvalles.
"It works because it gives a chance to people to save 13 per cent and that can go towards tips for the servers or consuming more. So I think that that is a good incentive for the restaurant," she said.
Buzio is also excited for the opportunity to welcome new faces into the restaurant to try its Winterlicious menu.
Early data shows tax holiday has been good for restaurants
"For lunch, we are having a lot of empanadas. We have many flavours of empanadas, Argentinian and Venezuelan," Buzio said. "We work with a lot of gluten free food and also some arepas and Yucca fries. And then for dinner we are doing, like a Venezuelan lasagna, that is called pasticho and then some rice balls."
Kelly Higginson, president and CEO of Restaurants Canada, says data collected by Open Table – an online restaurant reservation service – shows the federal tax break has been beneficial for the restaurant industry all over the country.
"Open Table was able to confirm a pretty significant increase in reservations and foot traffic," she said. "Nationally, they saw an increase of 18 per cent for those first two weeks that happened in December … but Ontario was the big winner, coming in with a 23 per cent increase."
Higginson feels a permanent tax break for restaurants could give the industry the economic boost it needs to maintain itself at a time when affordability is top of mind for most.
"We feel pretty confident and strongly that this should be made permanent," she said.
Higginson added that the restaurant sector has been at a disadvantage over the grocery sector since the GST was introduced in 1991, given most grocery items aren't subject to the tax, where restaurants are.
"So right there we feel there's an uneven playing field," she said.
CBC Toronto asked the federal Department of Finance if there are plans to make the tax break permanent for the restaurant industry or if the tax holiday might become an annual occurrence.
In an email, a spokesperson for the department said, "The temporary GST/HST holiday was provided to help make the season more affordable and to help families enjoy it more fully.
"This was announced as a temporary measure to provide relief from the GST/HST on certain purchases from December 14 ... Inflation has now been under three per cent for a full year, and is expected to remain near the two per cent target going forward."
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