The Tantramar Civic Centre canteen will have a new operator this season if Tantramar council approves a contract with Heather Wells to run the fast food and beer vendor situated in the mezzanine of the Civic Centre. But not much will change if the contract with Wells is approved, because the canteen is not an independent business, but rather a controlled and subsidized service provided by the town of Tantramar.
It costs the town in the range of $16,000 to $25,000 per year to run the canteen, with its menu of beer, sodas, fries and burgers. It works like this -- the town hires a contractor to run the canteen, and in exchange for a guaranteed fee of about $25,000 per year, the town sets the hours, menu, and prices for the small restaurant. The town covers all bills including food and supplies, and also gets all the revenue. The contractor is expected to open for a town-approved list of Civic Centre games and events between October and March, and the $25,000 fee covers up to 1000 hours of worker time in the canteen over that 6 month period. Any hours over and above that, and any staff hours for events between April and September, are billed separately at $25 per worker, per hour.
In the 2022-23 season, the canteen took in about $42,000 in sales to customers, but overall the operation lost about $19,000, not including equipment maintenance. That means for every dollar a canteen customer spent on beer, slushies, or fries, the town spent about 45 cents.
Last year, Dave Epworth, formerly of Mel’s Tea Room, ran the canteen for the town. But Epworth has now taken on a full time job, and decided to opt out of year two of his contract. And so the municipality posted a request for proposals (RFP) this summer looking for another contractor to take on the job. When the RFP closed on August 17, the town had only received one proposal, from Heather Wells.
Town treasurer Michael Beal says that the town has considered other ways of offering canteen service in the past, but none have been deemed viable. Beal says the canteen is “not a money maker,” so would have to be subsidized one way or another, especially if it were to be open for regular events.
“As I’ve said through many budget processes,” said Beal at Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting, “it’s a service that we provide to the citizens who use our canteen, and it has not made money in more than 10 years.”
At least two other municipalities in New Brunswick advertised for new civic centre canteen operators this past month. In Carleton North, the municipality offers a lease for its canteen operation, and requires the operator to be open during games and events, and also to include at least three healthy food options on its menu. The River Valley Civic Centre in Perth Andover also offers a lease to potential canteen operators, with a requirement to be open during games and the potential to extend hours as desired.
Beal confirmed that in Tantramar, control over menu, hours, and pricing rests with the municipality. “What we have with canteen contract is a service and labor contract,” explained Beal. “It is not a full service, canteen operation where ‘here’s the space and you operate it’. No, we make all the decisions.”
Councillor Josh Goguen asked on Tuesday why the canteen operator position was contracted out and not filled by Tantramar staff. Active Living Director Matt Pryde said that because of the difficult schedule for the canteen, with staff sometimes working late nights, it is “operationally a lot easier to have somebody who’s in charge of the canteen that’s taking care of everything and supervising their own employees.”
The $16,000 to $25,000 spent each year to subsidize the canteen is just a fraction of the cost of running and maintaining the entire Civic Centre. In 2019, the last ‘normal’ year before COVID struck, the Civic Centre cost the town of Sackville about $260,000 to operate. That’s after accounting for just over $545,000 in costs and nearly $285,000 in revenues coming in through user fees for the Centre.
Council will make a decision on awarding the canteen contract at their next regular meeting on September 12, 2023.