Amusement tax no laughing matter: movie operators

The City of Regina is reviewing a request by movie theatre operators to scrap a surcharge on tickets that the owners say is hurting their businesses.

For more than 80 years Regina has levied a 10-per-cent amusement tax on theatre tickets. The operators are allowed to hold back one per cent for collecting the tax.

The latest figures show Regina collects about $600,000 per year from the measure, but theatre operators say they could use the money.

"We are looking to try and keep the amusement tax that we're giving the city to be able to maintain our businesses," Wilf Runge, president of the Motion Picture Theatre Association of Saskatchewan, said Wednesday when the issue came before a committee of Regina's city council.

Runge, who is the owner of several discount cinema locations, said he is losing money because expenses have risen but his ticket prices have not. He said he must maintain prices at their 2004 levels in order to stay competitive with other theatres, as well as movie rentals and pay-per-view television.

"In this day and age, it's almost unheard of for a business to keep prices the same for five years," Runge told CBC News. He would not reveal how much money he is losing, but said he recently upgraded the sound system at the Rainbow theatre in Regina.

"That's a substantial investment," he said, "and it would be nice to be able to help pay that off."

Runge appeared before the executive committee of city council alongside Anthony Irving, a lobbyist with the Motion Picture Theatre Association of Canada.

Tax ended years ago for others

The two argued that movie screens should get the same break as other forms of entertainment that contributed to the amusement tax in the past.

In 1989, the city exempted the Saskatchewan Roughriders professional football club, the Regina Rams university team, all entertainment at the exhibition grounds, as well as live theatre and opera venues from having to impose the tax.

Movie theatres had to continue paying because, according to a city report of the time, "no alternative revenue sources or expense reduction options exist to reduce the impact on City revenues."

The same question arose Wednesday.

Mayor Pat Fiacco asked Runge how Regina could make up the $600,000 a year it would lose in revenues.

"Without sounding like a smart ass, I guess maybe the same place that was made up when you let the Roughriders off the hook and the Regina Pats and everybody else that charged [the tax] at one time," Runge responded.

Runge's national counterpart, Anthony Irving, pointed out to councillors that Regina and Winnipeg are the only municipalities in the country that still charge an amusement tax on movie tickets.

In 2007, Saskatoon eliminated its nine-per-cent amusement tax on movie-theatre tickets.

However, other jurisdictions do impose some form of tax. While Saskatchewan does not apply its provincial sales tax to movie tickets, other provinces with a PST do.

As well, Ontario tacks on another two per cent to its sales tax, according to Adina Lebo, executive director of the Motion Picture Theatre Association of Canada.

Despite the amusement tax, Regina still has some of the lowest theatre ticket prices in the country. Customers pay between $9.00 and $9.95 for new releases, while paying as much as $11.95 in Montreal and $12.50 in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. 

Cineplex chain supports ending tax

Pat Marshall, a spokesperson for Cineplex Entertainment, which owns six theatres in the province — one each in Moose Jaw and Prince Albert, and two each in Regina and Saskatoon — said her company supports the elimination of the amusement tax.

Marshall told CBC News that Cineplex could direct the savings to theatre improvements — "new sound systems, enhancements in terms of 3-D technology and digital technology [and] changes to the concession [stand]."

The committee decided the future of the amusement tax would be considered during the 2009 budget process, which has just begun.