While the Labour Day Classic not being played this year, due to the CFL season being cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people across Saskatchewan aren’t letting that stop them from preparing their annual tailgate barbecue they would normally have on the same day of the big game. 

With public health guidelines imposing limits on the number of people allowed to gather, it has some people wondering how to structure their annual feast. A lot of things go into the decisions on the menu: number of guests, weather, and more. Of course, the die-hard fans don’t concern themselves too much with the weather. 

Then, the cost is also a concern for many, especially this year. But, how does the cost of a big Labour Day barbecue in Saskatchewan stack up against the rest of the country? It was a question we asked ourselves and took a look at the numbers. Thankfully, Statistics Canada just released a list of items often purchased for barbecues, and what the average costs for these items are across the country. This helped to make the comparison easy. 

One thing to note, however, is the prices were based on data collected during the month of June, so some things have changed since then.  

So, before we can determine our costs, we have to set up a menu. For this hypothetical Labour Day Classic Barbecue Blowout, we are looking at having steaks, along with some burgers and hot dogs for those who want something a little different. And of course, all of the major fixings for the burgers, hot dogs and steak are included – onions, mushrooms, cheese, tomatoes, and more.  

No barbecue is ever truly complete without a serving of coleslaw, so we are including it in the pricing as well, and the starchy side dish will be a baked potato. 

Now, our guest list.  

This will all be done factoring in a family of four, with two guests invited for each person, making for a total of 12 people. There will be six steaks prepared, along with 16 burgers and 16 hotdogs. Our portions will be hearty – 6-ounce steaks, ¼ pound burgers, and more.  

So, let’s get to work on the math so we can figure out how much the food for an event like this would cost.  

The list provided by Statistics Canada shows the average cost for sirloin in Saskatchewan is $15.74 per kilogram, which is the lowest in the country. For six, 6-ounce steaks, we would need just over a kilogram (1.02058 to be exact), meaning we would have a cost of $16.06. 

For the burgers, our cost would be $17.18 (based on an average cost of $9.47 per kilogram) for the ground beef to make the burgers ourselves. Then for the wieners, the cost per 400 grams of wiener is $6.13, giving us a total cost of $12.26 to ensure there will be enough on the menu. 

Now that the proteins are out of the way, we can look at the costs of the sides. The coleslaw for the barbecue would be a simple one, made from cabbage and carrots. The dressings and other condiments (mustard, ketchup, mayo, etc.) aren’t included in the pricing from Statistics Canada, so for the sake of our hypothetical barbecue, we will assume the hosts will have those already on hand. 

A two-kilogram head of cabbage, along with 1.36 kilograms of carrots (a three-pound bag) would come to a total of $9.23 ($2.55 per kilogram for the cabbage, and $1.13 for the carrots). This would make a fairly large bowl of slaw, and enough for rather hearty portions for everyone. Of course, a little-known secret is coleslaw makes a pretty tasting topping on hamburgers and hotdogs.  

Many people like to sauté onions and mushrooms with a pan right on their barbecue. These go good with steak, and on a burger as well. To get those cooked up with enough for everyone, we went with a three-pound bag of onions, and a pound of mushrooms (two of those packaged containers common in most produce sections). The onions run at a cost of $4.21 per kilogram, on average in Saskatchewan. This puts the cost of three pounds of them at $5.56. The mushrooms average around $2.53 per 227-gram package, so a full pound would have a cost of $4.84. 

Another popular topping, which can also be used, when broken into bits with potatoes, is bacon. The amount needed was a tricky one to figure out for this, since some people can eat large quantities of it with little issue. After much internal debate, the decision was made to go with a kilogram of bacon for this barbecue. With an average price of $6.13 for 500 grams, the total would come to $12.26. 

Butter would be needed for sautéing the onions and mushrooms, and it comes in handy in so many other ways as well. A pound of butter has an average cost of $3.89, and we would only need the one brick of it for the barbecue.  

For the potatoes, a ten-pound bag was used for our math, even though it is unlikely all ten pounds of them would be used for the barbecue. The average cost, in Saskatchewan, for a ten-pound bag of potatoes is $7.27 according to the numbers released by Statistics Canada.  

The final item on the list to ensure we have our menu complete is the cheese, which would be used on the hamburgers, the hot dogs, and for some people, the baked potatoes as well. The average cost for a kilogram of cheese is $6.09, however, since many packages of block cheese are 908 grams, we had to do a little math, and it came out to $11.06 for our barbecue. 

When we add everything up, the total cost for the food, not including condiments or the buns for the hot dogs and hamburgers, came out to $94.83 in Saskatchewan. Considering 12 people are being fed a full meal, and there will definitely be leftovers, it works out to just under $8 a person.  

Now, how does this stack up against the rest of the country? 

The maritime provinces (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick) were fairly close to the prices in Saskatchewan. The total grocery bill for the menu in those provinces ranged from $95.63 in Nova Scotia to $96.69 in New Brunswick.  

Quebec had the highest total among all of the provinces, with the total coming to $100.10. The biggest factor to the difference in price was the cost of the steaks in Quebec, which were $5.50 more than the national average.  

Ontario’s price tag for our hypothetical barbecue was just pennies more than Nova Scotia, at $95.64. It was also the fourth lowest in the country.  

Going to our neighbours to the west, prices in Alberta were quite a bit more than those in Saskatchewan. In fact, they were the third-highest in the country. The total bill came out to $98.79. One of the main factors was the price of bacon in Alberta, which is nearly a dollar more than the national average. An above-average price for potatoes didn’t help either. 

British Columbia had the second-highest total for the menu. Its total was $99.15, as the average price, according to Statistics Canada, for all of the meat was above the national average. While the prices of the fresh produce were below the national average, it wasn’t enough to make up the difference. 

This leaves just one province aside from Saskatchewan, and that is Manitoba. There, the other province which closely follows the Labour Day Classic Football game, and is just as likely as a Saskatchewan resident to put together a tailgate party at home to watch the game, the prices came out just a few cents cheaper than they were in Saskatchewan. Just 26 cents cheaper. The main reason why? The prices for the dairy products, butter and cheese, were slightly below what they cost in Saskatchewan. 

At the end of the day, though, having the cost for a tailgate barbecue on Labour Day be on average the lowest in the country is a small consolation for the average Manitoban, considering, for the most part, they have to watch the Blue Bombers lose while enjoying their meal.