Citing the HST, stricter liquor laws and the struggling economy, Saanich announced last week it would be scaling back the restaurant at the Cedar Hill Golf Course. The restaurant faced a $342,000 deficit in 2011.
Effective Feb. 18, it will switch over from a full-service restaurant to a light food and beverage service.
Doug Henderson, director of Saanich parks and rec, said he estimates most of the nine regular employees will continue to work in the "restructured" food service, while 14 on-call employees will no longer see work.
"It's an economics decision. We've been watching the challenges and trying to deal with the challenges both on the golf side and on the clubhouse side for a number of years, and unfortunately it just reached a point where the subsidization and the cost of supporting the (clubhouse) operation just couldn't be continued," Henderson said.
On the golf side of things, the course itself is operating at a $200,000 per year deficit. Even with the changes to food service this year, Henderson is projecting a total deficit of half a million dollars for the Cedar Hill Golf Course in 2012.
"We're working on the golf course side as well. Certainly the weather lately hasn't helped us in that case. Demographics are changing, people's interests are changing. We'll be chatting with some of the golfers over the next couple of weeks, to try and address what we might be able to change," Henderson said.
The golf course restaurant is currently open seven days a week at 7:30 a.m. Lunch begins daily at 11 a.m., and dinner is served three nights a week until 7:30 p.m.
kslavin@saanichnews.com