The three necessities of life are: food, shelter and clothing. By definition, Calgary's homeless population are having trouble getting shelter, and if the Calgary Committee to End Homelessness has anything to do with it, the homeless will soon have a tougher time getting food as well.

As reported in last Thursday's Calgary Herald, the committee is proposing a new tax on restaurant meals or a new civic user fee to help fund affordable housing initiatives.

However noble their goal to "end homelessness" or build more affordable. housing may be, the last thing this committee should consider is imposing yet another tax or user fee on Calgarians. Moreover, of all of the taxes they could have proposed, a tax on restaurant meals is one of the worst.

A tax on restaurant meals will make food more expensive for the homeless, leave struggling families less to spend on their own food, shelter and clothing, and leave all Calgary families with less disposable income to donate to worthy charities.

While some homeless rely on the charity of shelters for food, others rely on low-cost (often fast-food) restaurants for food. And this makes sense, since most of these people don't have stoves to cook grocery-store bought food on, or refrigerators to keep grocery-store bought food in.

By taxing the food at restaurants and making the food more expensive, homeless people who already struggle to scrape together enough money to get a hot meal will have little choice but to eat less.

While Brian O'Leary, chairman of the Calgary Homeless Foundation claims the tax would be fairly small, about "15 cents on a restaurant meal," these types of taxes often go up and rarely go down.

A cursory look around North America and Europe sets restaurant taxes as low as one per cent and as high as 19.6 per cent (France).

According to a 2001 Statistics Canada report, "Food Expenditure in Canada," the average prairie family spends $2,105 a year in food purchased from restaurants. At France's restaurant tax rate, Calgary families would be on the hook for an additional $413 per year in restaurant taxes.

Those who are likely struggling to find affordable housing (families earning under $20,000 in annual income) still spend more than $800 per year in restaurants. Again, at France's tax rate that's an extra $158 per family in restaurant taxes.

Taxes eat away at Canadians' ability to provide food, shelter and clothing for themselves. According to a recent Fraser Institute study, in 1961, the average Canadian family spent 56.5 per cent of their family income on food, shelter and clothing, and 33.5 per cent went to taxes.

By 2006, the numbers nearly reversed, with 44.9 per cent of family income going to taxes, and only 35.6 per cent being spent on food, shelter and clothing.

Furthermore, even at O'Leary's proposed rate, a restaurant tax is yet another example of nickel and diming Calgarians' disposable income - leaving less available for Calgarians to donate to charities.

In general, countries with high taxes have low rates of private charitable donations from their citizens. It should be no surprise, per capita, lower-taxed Americans donate twice as much to charity as higher-taxed Canadians.

A restaurant tax is not smart tax policy. Smart tax policy dictates you tax things you want less of. Governments tax tobacco so it will become too expensive and people will smoke less. Governments tax liquor so it will become too expensive and people will drink less. It's the same reason why some suggest we need to tax hot air . . . er, greenhouse gasses.

Conversely, it's the same reason why we as society shouldn't tax things like food, shelter and clothing.

It's the same reason why our sky-high Employment Insurance premiums need to be lowered.

It's the same reason why Mayor Dave Bronconnier's current plan to tax entertainment, tourism and new housing development is so bad.

We want more food, more clothing and more shelter in Calgary, not less.

We want more jobs, more tourism and more housing in Calgary, not less.

And if you want homeless people to be able to afford to eat, struggling Calgary families to be able to keep providing their own food, shelter and clothing and more money donated to worthy charities, let's send this idea of a restaurant tax out into the cold.