The Martlet

Businesses at UVic are not immune to the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) that came in to effect in B.C. on July 1, and as a result, students are now paying more for some items on campus.

Prior to July 1, there was a five per cent federal sales tax and a seven per cent provincial sales tax. The new HST is charged on some items that carried the federal tax (GST) but not the provincial tax (PST). At the Student Union Building (SUB), most food prices rose seven per cent, though pizza at Bean There rose from $3.75 to $3.95, rather than a seven per cent increase to $3.99.

“We thought $3.95 was more appetizing — for lack of a better word — than $4 and it would be perceived better,” said SUB Business Manager Dale Robertson.

A few prices did rise above seven per cent, however, such as lasagna, one of the items introduced after Bean There’s 2009 expansion. Lasagna went up from $3.75 in September 2009 to $4.95 in January 2010; it now sits at $5.40. Robertson said this is due to recipe changes such as replacing soy cheese with real cheese.

Though the raw materials for food items aren’t taxed, the SUB will see an increase in utilities and transportation costs due to the HST. However, the new HST rebate will provide savings on inventory and capital purchases.

While prices went up seven per cent in the SUB, UVic food outlets like University Centre Cafeteria and Bibliocafé saw a bigger increase. Instead of adding HST to the actual price of the food items, UVic is charging 12 per cent on top of the previous price, which already included GST.

For instance, pizza at the Centre Caf rose from $3.50 to $3.92. Since the price of these food items include both the original GST and an additional 12 per cent of the previous after-tax price, this actually works out to a charge of 18 per cent over the original base price, with the extra six per cent going to the university.

UVic’s Director of Student Services, Joel Lynn, said the price hike is necessary to cover rising wholesale prices and upgrades to old equipment.

“The university has not accelerated its price point on a number of items across campus in the last couple of years, and we’ve had significant increases in terms of buying our food,” said Lynn. “Also, we’re trying to work to buy locally and work with wholesalers and providers that meet some of the sustainability objectives set by the university — there’s costs associated with doing that.”

Lynn also explained that kitchen equipment in Cadboro Commons and University Centre is getting old and needs to be upgraded or replaced. He noted that university food services aren’t eligible for government funding, so they have to pay for themselves.

“I think if you looked across the country at universities that have comparable food services operations to UVic, our retail pricing is really, really competitive and reasonable,” he said.

Students can expect a consultation on UVic food services in the upcoming school year.

“We are going to engage sometime over the fall in a broader food services survey to get a better understanding of direct student input on quality,” said Lynn.

Robertson said SUB management made a conscious decision against raising prices the way UVic did.

“We didn’t think it would go over well, and was not a great business decision, to just tack on the HST,” he said. “We’re also trying to keep things as affordable as possible.” It may now cost more to eat on campus, but the good news for students is that textbook prices haven’t gone up.

Jim Forbes, manager of the UVic Bookstore, explained that the B.C. government offers an automatic rebate for the PST portion of HST on both textbooks and general books. HST is charged on the wholesale price of books but the bookstore gets a 72 per cent rebate. Forbes said the slight extra cost won’t be passed on to customers.

“The government put it in because they did not want to raise the price of books over the current level of taxation,” said Forbes. However, stationery for school purposes, which used to be tax exempt, is now subject to HST.