Food services and drinking places, January 2017

Released: 2017-03-31

Sales in the food services and drinking places subsector rose 1.5% to $5.6 billion in January, on the strength of sales at limited-service eating places. This was the largest monthly change since September 2016. Prices for food purchased from restaurants were up 2.3% compared with January 2016, while prices for alcoholic beverages increased 1.3%.

Chart 1 
Sales in the food services and drinking places subsector increase

Sales increases widespread across the subsector

Sales at limited-service eating places bounced back with a 2.9% increase in January, after a 1.1% decline in December.

At drinking places (+3.6%), sales increased for the first time in three months.

A 0.2% gain was reported for full-service restaurants, following a 1.1% increase a month earlier.

Sales in the special food services industry group, which includes food service contractors, caterers and mobile food services, rose 0.1%.

Sales up in every province

Ontario posted the largest gain, up 1.8% in January after declining 0.7% in December.

Sales rose 1.4% in Quebec in January, a fifth consecutive monthly increase.

British Columbia (+1.6%) posted its third consecutive monthly increase.

Sales increased by 3.4% in Nova Scotia, which offset the declines of the two previous months.

In Manitoba, a 2.4% gain partially offset a 2.6% decrease in December.

Sales in New Brunswick increased 2.3% in January following two months of declines, while sales in Newfoundland and Labrador (+2.6%) rose for the first time since July 2016.

Sales also rose in Saskatchewan (+0.8%), Alberta (+0.1%) and Prince Edward Island (+3.5%).

In celebration the 150th year of Confederation, Statistics Canada is presenting snapshots from our rich statistical history.

From the Canada Year Book (1966 edition), Ontario accounted for 38% of national restaurant sales in 1961, the largest proportion in the country. This remained true in 2016, with sales in the province accounting for 39.6% of sales in the food services and drinking places subsector. The remaining provinces, in descending order of their 2016 share of sales, are: Quebec (32.1% in 1961, declining to 18.5% in 2016), British Columbia (9.3% rising to 16.1%), Alberta (6.6% increasing to 13.7%), Manitoba (4.5% down to 3.0%), Saskatchewan (3.8% down to 2.9%) and the Atlantic provinces (6.5% to 5.9%).

Contact information

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