Montreal bars, restaurants react to Quebec bill to regulate merchant tipping requests
Julia Dougall-Picard swings into action when customers settle in for lunch at Frite Alors in Montreal's downtown Quartier Latin neighbourhood.
The 20-year-old works as a server at the popular restaurant chain, dishing out burgers and beers several times a week.
She takes home a low hourly wage, making up the difference through tips left by the restaurant's customers. But the amount of money she'll make on each sale is about to change.
Quebec tabled a bill on Thursday that would regulate how merchants determine suggested tips, forcing businesses to calculate them based on the price before tax.
On a restaurant bill of $100, for instance, suggested tips would be calculated as a percentage of $100, not the after-tax total of $114.98.
Quebec's minister responsible for consumer protection, Simon Jolin-Barrette, said Thursday that there is a "growing pressure around tips," and people often end up paying more than they intend. But workers in the province’s restaurants and bars are divided about the effect the legislation will have on the industry and the people it employs.
For Dougall-Picard's part, the change is welcome.
“I don't really mind the change. Honestly, to me it's just a few dollars or cents and it doesn't change much to my life, and as a customer, I'd rather be paying tips on what I ordered and not on the taxes,” she said in an interview.
Even though Dougall-Picard makes the bulk of her earnings from tips, she thinks the province's proposed calculation system may actually prod patrons to be more generous.
“We really rely on tips as waiters and waitresses because our salary is lower than minimum wage, so I think that maybe if people … don't have to tip on top of the taxes that … it might encourage people to tip more,” she said.
But Jaskaran Singh, manager at restaurant Arriba Burrito located a bit farther down the bustling neighbourhood strip, is disappointed.
“It's never been actually a law to tip to a server, and I've been a server for a while, … serving in a lot of restaurants before this one too, and it's always been hard that our minimum wage is very low,” he said.
Singh says the restaurant regularly deals with customers, usually tourists, who refuse to tip.
Farther down the street, Marc-Antoine Bourdages, who manages the resto-bar Brasseurs du Monde, says he is okay with the change.
“I don't mind it at all,” he said, adding that he does not think most clients are aware that suggested tips are calculated on after-tax totals.
But Bourdages admits the bartenders and waiters he manages – who rely on tips for a large part of their income – likely do not share his view. “I'm pretty sure I stand alone with that idea. My staff's not going to be happy with that,” he said.
Martin Vézina, vice-president of public affairs at the Quebec Restaurant Association, says the change will leave dining room staff with fewer dollars in their pockets but won't have a significant impact on the industry at large.
Although restaurants choose the percentages for suggested tips, Vézina says the payment processing companies that provide point of sale terminals are in fact the ones who program the tip suggestions on top of the amount after tax.
“It doesn't cause that much trouble for the industry,” he said, explaining that restaurant owners may even end up paying less in credit card fees on tips as well as less income tax on declared tips.
But he also sees the bill as a missed opportunity to implement measures regarding “no-show” reservations, when customers book a restaurant table but never turn up. He says no-shows cost Quebec restaurants an average of $47,000 per year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Federal government to further limit number of international students
The federal government will be further limiting the number of international students permitted to enter Canada next year. It's the government's latest immigration-related measure to address Canadians' ongoing housing and affordability concerns.
Search for suspect in Kentucky highway shooting ends with discovery of body believed to be his
Authorities say they believe the body of a man suspected of shooting and wounding five people on a Kentucky interstate highway has been found.
Here's why you should get all your vaccines as soon as possible
With all these shots, some Canadians may have questions about the benefit of each vaccine, whether they should get every shot and how often to get them, and if it's safe to get them all at once or if they should space them out.
Bloc MPs will vote confidence in Liberal government next week: Blanchet
The Conservatives' first shot at toppling the Liberal government is likely doomed to fail, after Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet told reporters his MPs will vote confidence in the government.
'I'm here for the Porsche': Video shows brazen car theft in Mississauga
Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.
Exploding electronic devices kill 20, wound 450 in second day of explosions in Lebanon
Lebanon's health ministry said Wednesday that at least 20 people were killed and 450 others wounded by exploding electronic devices in multiple regions of the country. The explosions came a day after an apparent Israeli attack targeting pagers used by Hezbollah killed at least 12 and wounded nearly 3,000.
'It starts off innocent': Manitoba man loses $185,000 to crypto-romance scam
A Manitoba man is warning others after he fell victim to an elaborate online scam over the summer.
Teen faces new charge in Sask. high school arson attack
A 14-year-old student who allegedly set her classmate on fire is facing a new charge.
Quebec woman charged with first-degree murder in death of five-year-old boy
A 29-year-old Quebec woman is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a five-year-old boy southwest of Montreal.