Later this week, Regina’s city council will decide whether to lower the amusement tax by half.
The tax, which currently only applies to the city’s cinemas, will decrease from 10 per cent to five per cent if approved. That decrease will result in $350,000 in reduced revenue for the city.
Michael Paris, a board member of the Movie Theatre Association of Canada, says the tax is still five percent too much.
“It’s not an amusement tax. It’s a tax that has been on the books for a 100 years, and city councils in the past have granted exceptions for every other form of amusement business except for cinemas, so it only applies to us,” he said. “We think that’s unfair. We think moviegoers in Regina shouldn’t have to pay 10 per cent more than movie theatres in Saskatoon.”
Without the reduction, Regina would have the highest overall taxes applied to movie theatres, with five per cent GST, six per cent PST and a 10 per cent municipal tax rate once PST expands on October 1 for a total of 21 per cent.
With the reduction, that number drops to 16 per cent, which is still the highest in the country, but by only a one-per-cent margin, but still higher than Saskatoon, which sits at 11 per cent.
Paris said this isn’t a new request as they asked the council in 2003, 2009, 2017, and once again during the pandemic to abolish the tax.
“That is five per cent better than when we were, but at the end of the day. It will still leave Regina at the high tax jurisdiction for movie tickets in North America at 16 per cent.”
“The people that pay for it are literally children, families, and seniors, who are seeking the most affordable form of at-home entertainment, and any additional cost that keeps them on their coach is bad for the local economy. It’s an economic disincentive.”
The decrease will be voted on by council just a week after Rainbow Cinemas had to close its doors.
Paris said it’s hard to tell if the tax affected the cinema’s ability to stay open but noted it didn’t help.
“It’s been a very difficult ride for cinemas, in particular, the type of cinema that the Rainbow was,” he said. “I think with the cost of the pandemic, the cost of labour going up, all things combined with being the first to close and last to reopen during the pandemic, challenging in terms of getting movies, it’s been a very difficult environment, and I think it didn’t help and it hasn’t helped.”
He said it’s a small win if the tax decreases, but the city is only doing it due to the PST now being applied to cinemas.
“That is five per cent better than when we were, but at the end of the day, and it will still leave Regina at the high tax jurisdiction for movie tickets in North America at 16 per cent,” he said. “It’s very difficult to get a government to quit free money, and the reason that this issue was brought to a head finally in 2022 is in connection to what the province did with PST.”
