Donna Waters seeks halt to 'market disruption'

An Iqaluit restaurauteur is on the boil about "catering cowboys" who, she claimed, hide behind school groups like Skills Canada and steal her business through unfair competition.

In a two-page letter to Iqaluit Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik, Donna Waters, co-owner of Waters' Edge Seafood and Steakhouse, complained about caterers who use "public facilities such as the Baffin Regional Hospital, Inuksuk High School, Nunavut Arctic College and possibly others."

Most restaurants go into debt to rent or buy a building and "equip a commercial-grade kitchen," she said in her letter.

She said that "individuals who just take advantage of catering jobs as they come up" and use public-facility kitchens, have little overhead, and do not pay employee expenses like workers' compensation fees, taxes, insurance charges, and Canada pension and employment insurance payments."

As a result, Waters wrote, they offer lower prices that contribute to "market disruption."

She compared it to a construction program offered by BCC in the 1990s using inmate labour that "was halted after outrage from construction companies who argued successfully that it contributed to a market disruption and undermined local construction businesses."

Waters said her restaurant employs 25 full-time and six part-time employees. She said she has worked with Skills Canada students and the Culinary Program at Inuksuk High School, and also donates to the community.

She is upset, she wrote, that "not only does the town issue business licences to individuals without catering facilities, it has been known to employ their services while the restaurants in Iqaluit struggle to pay their employees and their bills."

At the suggestion of councillor Glenn Williams, council directed city staff to respond to the letter.