Swiss Chalet and Harvey’s are the latest chain restaurants pull up stakes in the Tournament Capital and some business people think taxes might be to blame.

While on the NL Morning News, Kamloops Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Acacia Pangelinin was asked if taxes played into it. “When we conducted our business walks in the fall we heard a lot about how taxation is hurting our businesses, especially our businesses who are in the hospitality industry like our restaurants.”

“So, at the Chamber we chose to focus on hospitality during the month of February.”

She’s heard from business leaders around the city and taxes come up in conversations a lot. “We really wanted to highlight the great things that our hospitality industry does in a season that is usually quite slow for them.”

“So, it’s unfortunate that we’re losing Swiss Chalet and Harvey’s, we lost BT’s earlier this year. There’s definitely a lot of factors that play into that but taxation is one of them that we’re hearing.”

Pangalinin says there are a lot of factors that play into it but taxation is one of them that she’s been hearing, “Depends on your space and where you are but depending on how many employees you have. You may have been hit with the Employee Health Tax which came through provincially so, there are all levels of government taxing our businesses and it’s hard to keep up sometimes.”

Pangalinin says one way to help the hospitality industry during their slow period is simply ask a friend out for a drink or take you family out to dinner.