A visitor wrote in to the paper this week to complain of a practice common in Jasper’s restaurants – servers automatically charging people who appear to be foreigners for tips.

In June last year, the Fitzhugh published an article called The Tipping Scales of Gratuity, which followed up on a similar complaint.

So it seems, this problem with guests unhappy with being charged a tip is not new, just like late-night mischief in Jasper’s downtown core.

Though Lonely Planet’s (a popular travel guide) explanation of gratuity in Canada suggests that travelers from places where tipping isn’t customary may be charged a tip, it is most certainly an unfair, insulting practice.

Fair enough, servers earn low wages and make most of their money from tips. But working in the service industry in a popular tourist destination, restaurant staff run the risk of serving visitors from foreign countries. Surely the money they make from other guests makes up the difference for the handful who don’t leave a tip.

To assume that a person with a non-Canadian accent doesn’t live here is ridiculous as well. Some people immigrate to this country and keep their home accents for decades. 

Most people can probably think of at least a dozen people they know who live here in Jasper, with accents that might make a stranger think they live in another country.

Does that mean they should automatically be charged a tip? 

It’s one thing to print a notice on the bottom of a menu, explaining that a 15 per cent tip is the norm in Canada, but another thing altogether to not only discriminate people based on the way they speak, but also to charge them more than other customers.

As well, it would be one thing altogether to implement a standard practice and charge everyone a tip, or charge no one a tip, but to pick and choose who receives the fee is ridiculous. If Jasper’s servers are so worried about earning their bucks, then perhaps they should get a standard 15 per cent and forego the opportunity to provide excellent service and earn a generous gratuity.

Associates from Australia have told me how terrible restaurant service is in that country, because the servers are paid so well and don’t have to work for their tips. 

Maybe we should go down that road, and further displease every guest.

Tourists, the backbone of Jasper’s economy, are more important to the town this year than last. And one guest who has an unhappy experience is not just one guest lost – how many people can one displeased couple tell their story to?

In its online piece on Canada, Lonely Planet goes on to mention this country’s pride in multiculturalism. But to assume a person who speaks differently is a clueless foreigner completely contradicts that notion.

Thank you to the couple who wrote the letter to the paper, as it may serve as a reminder what the tourist season means in Jasper. Employee burn-out is a big problem by the end of a busy summer, but it seems the service is already slipping before the rush has hit.