A quiet student pub, racks of unsold clothing, and a bustling coffee shop where sales fall short, the AMS services are closing out the year thousands of dollars away from breaking even.
The shortfall isn’t just numbers on a balance sheet; its fewer shifts, tighter margins, and uncertainty for staff and customers of AMS services.
When Emma* started her job at the Queen’s Pub and Restaurant (QP) this summer, she expected somewhere near the 10 to 12 hours a week she requested. Instead, she spends her few shifts surrounded by empty tables.
Emma’s experience isn’t an isolated one—it’s a snapshot of a much larger financial strain unfolding across student-run services.
In just one year, the AMS projected budget deficit has more than doubled, going from a $247,526 deficit to $514,412. In their nine-month update, the actual deficit came in at $852,202, $300,00 higher than expected. The initial deficit projections were primarily driven by the offices portfolio and partially offset by a projected $86,140 surplus in services.
What Emma experienced on the floor is now showing up in the AMS’s financials, with the gap between expectation and reality embedded at the heart of the AMS’s growing deficit.
AMS Vice-President (Operations) Elena Nurzynski explained in an interview with The Journal how the expected surplus in services is primarily driven by the move into the newly renovated JDUC. “It’s a new building, so we were expecting to see a lot of excitement, engagement, and curiosity with the new building and therefore a lot of foot traffic through our services, so that was the biggest piece that we were anticipating when building the budget,” Nurzynski said.
However, recent actuals suggest a decrease in student engagement with the new services in the JDUC. $570,777 of the deficit is attributable to the newly revitalized Queen’s Pub (QP), and $72,000 is due to Society 58, formerly Tricolour outlet, which are both located in the brand new JDUC.
With the movement of various AMS services, and the grand re-opening of the QP, The Journal set out to understand how the 2025-26 services budget was constructed.
Building the budget
When Head Managers assume their positions in May, they begin working with the AMS Vice-President (Operations) to construct a budget reflective of their services needs and expected revenue.
For most of the services managers, they’ve had varying experiences building their budgets. Head Manager of the AMS Media Centre, what’s expected to be the most profitable service in 2026, Jordan Medulan, explained in an interview with The Journal how she constructed her budget.
“It’s a lot of just looking at past years and the pattern recognition in order to build something that will support you in the areas that you need to be supported, as well as […] projections of what you think based on industry knowledge,” she said.
For the head managers, they began working on their budget in May. Society 58, formerly Tricolour Outlet, Head Manager Tatyana Grandmaitre-Saint-Pierre, however, told The Journal her budget was constructed for her prior to assuming her role. As of March 31, Grandmaitre-Saint-Pierre no longer assumes the position of Head Manager, with responsibilities now being assumed by Alexis Collins-Barrieau.
Other head managers, including Ashlyn Acorn from CoGro and The Brew, as well as Greyson Martyn of The QP had various experiences constructing their budget.
Acorn began her role after the interim head manager, Alex MacKinnon, left in the fall, and the budget had already been approved by the board. However, she didn’t see a need to update it. When asked about why they chose to hire a head manager for the full year in May, Acorn said it was a decision made by the executives at the time.
“I wasn’t able to change the budget at all, because they [the outgoing head manager] had put a lot of work into making it and it was very sound,” Acorn said.
For Martyn, he began his role while the QP budget was being created, which he told The Journal was built based on industry standards and data from the old QP.
“I was brought on while the budget was being created, and so I definitely was aware of how it was being created, and I kind of consulted, but at the same time I was very early into my role for a brand-new service that we really had no idea how exactly it would perform,” Martyn said in an interview with The Journal.
Whether they’re built in consultation with the outgoing head manager, or prepared in advance, services budgets are approved by the AMS board of directors, and eventually presented at the AMS Corporate Special General Meeting, around November or December.
Martyn noted that the QP is constantly updating its budget, considering actual versus expected sales. However, the budget for the QP presented at the Corporate General Meeting on Dec. 2 was over $50,000 off target.
“I wasn’t at assembly for that [budget presentation], but from what I heard, she [Vice-President (Operations), Nurzynski] was presenting the Budget,” Martyn said.
Nurzynski explained that the budgets are Built in May, approved in July or August, but aren’t presented to assembly until November.
“Once it’s approved by the board, you don’t change it,” Nurzynski said.
The Money Sink
The largest driver of the deficit, the QP, was expected to generate a $13,382 surplus in May.
AMS Services Surplus and Deficit Presented at 2026 Corporate Annual General Meeting by Nurzynski. PHOTO SUPPLIED BY ELENA NURZYNSKI
Nurzynski explained how they calculated the QPs expected revenue, based on industry standards and the institutional knowledge of the operations officer.
“Ultimately it came down to an average ticket price of $21 which equates to a drink and an appetizer. We multiplied that by having a full seating for lunch and dinner, and that’s basically how it came up with the revenue,” Nurzynski said.
However, a full seating at lunch and dinner hasn’t been accurate. “Since opening, we’ve seen that this [a full seating] isn’t necessarily the case, but we are constantly adapting and finding new ways to decrease costs and bring in revenue,” Martyn said.
To better understand student engagement with the QP, The Journal attended the pub from March 11 to 13 between 4 and 7 p.m. On the 11 at 4 pm the QP had only two seatings, for a total of six customers, and six seatings at 5 p.m. However, it got busier towards 6 p.m. with a planned event. On the 12 at 5 p.m. the QP had a total of two seatings and four customers, and on the 13, there were a total of six seatings with roughly 24 customers at 5 p.m. The QP has a maximum occupancy of 110 diners.
The lower-than-expected attendance began with a soft opening in the summer; however, Martyn explained the QP was expecting increased engagement when students returned to campus.
“We hired some staff for the summer, that was kind of our baseline team that we wanted to kind of grow with for the summer and hear their feedback before bringing on more students for the school year,” Martyn said.
However, even staff hired in the summer aren’t receiving regular hours at the pub.
“There’s like 40 servers and roughly 42 serving shifts in a full week that are available, so it doesn’t feel like an option right now to reach out and ask for an extra shift because there’s just no shifts to be taken,” said QP employee, Emma, in an interview with The Journal.
Emma explained how she was hired over the summer, expecting to work around 12 to 15 hours a week throughout the summer and the school year, but currently receives roughly one three hour shift a week. She also noted that some of her co workers were relying on the pub as a full-time job through the summer but have received significantly less hours.
“I have a friend who’s also a co-worker, and she’d quit her other job beforehand expecting this [the Queen’s Pub] to be her full-time job. She wanted 35 to 40 [hours], and I think she was only getting […] less than 20 a week,” Emma said.
Emma cited the lack of attendance as the primary reason for lower hours, explaining how sometimes when the patio was open, they would see a slight increase in engagement, but as the weather got colder and the novelty of the new pub wore off, attendance has waned.
“They just totally overestimated how busy it would be, and now they’ve just got all this staff that kind of, you know, barely have a job,” Emma said.
Nurzynski explained how the QP staffing budget was primarily influenced by industry knowledge, and previous data from the Queen’s Pub, which hasn’t been operational since 2020. She highlighted that the operations officer and pub’s permanent staff had experience in the restaurant industry, that was essential in building the budget. However, Nurzynski didn’t identify any specific market analysis that was undertaken prior to opening.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say market research was done,” Nurzynski said.
To better understand the restaurant climate in Kingston, The Journal sat down with Dave McNamara, the owner and operator of Union Kitchen and Cocktails, Baja Craft Kitchen, and The Merchant Taphouse.
McNamara said he budgets for the worst possible outcome and makes staffing decisions based on that. He also highlighted a generational shift towards drinking less, noting that the restaurant industry is still recovering from COVID-19, and how larger conglomerates can sell for less—pricing many restaurants out of the Kingston market.
When asked about the challenges Kingston pubs are facing, McNamera said restaurants opening in 2026 could expect “to fail.” He mentioned how the Kingston market is unique with the constant turnover of university students, requiring careful planning and budgeting.
While expectations of full seating at the Queen’s Pub may not have materialized, McNamera notes that low attendance in the first yar of operations should be expected and budgeted for.
Behind the empty seats are staff without hours, and a deficit that keeps growing.
Lack of ‘up-to-date data in the JDUC’ being the sole culprit
It’s not only the Queen’s Pub driving the services deficit. Society 58 is $72,019 away from their projected surplus of $19.
Nurzinski and AMS President-elect and current Board of Directors Chair Dreyden George told The Journal that the primary reason for the discrepancies in the projected and actual budget was due to outdated data.
Without up-to date data on services in the JDUC, Nurzinski emphasized that it was difficult to make accurate predictions of student engagement. Especially for services such as Society 58, which had moved form the Rideau Building and rebranded from their former name; Tricolour Outlet.
Nurzinski notes how they expected to see a large increase in revenue with the move, one that never materialized. When asked what the projected revenue increase was across services moving to the JDUC, Nurzinski wrote in a statement to The Journal that “we [the AMS] did not apply a specific percentage increase, as we based our projections on historical sales data.”
For services such as Common Ground Coffeehouse (CoGro), which did not move to the JDUC and has over 25 years of historical data, revenue projections were still $93,000 off target.
Despite the projected surplus for 2024-26, CoGro has historically been in a deficit, which amounted to $23,519 in 2024-25.
Acorn, Head Manager of Cogro and the Brew, noted how each year, head managers build off one another, and a previous deficit may not indicate future projections.
“I think every year you gain more knowledge about the service and about the trends and your target audience,” Acorn said.
Nurzinski, however, said the budget ultimately “comes down to looking at how the services performed previously.”
Following the nine-month update, Nurzinski and George highlighted that the discrepancies in Cogro’s projected and actual revenues is likely due to some of the customer base shifting to the newly opened Brew.
When asked if she saw a decrease in customers with the opening of The Brew, Acorn said “they [Cogro and The Brew] offer different menu offerings, so they are distinct from one another […] I wouldn’t say The Brew has taken away anything.”
***
In the end, the numbers tell the same story as the empty pub, the unsold racks, and the coffee shop that never quite converts its crowds—expectations built on foot traffic that, this year, simply didn’t materialize. For all the anticipation surrounding the move, the reopenings, and the promise of renewed student engagement, reality proved a little less generous—and a lot more complicated.
With the nine-month update, the initial projections were at least $800,000 off target, reflecting a stark gap between what was expected and what actually played out across student services. While AMS investment performance has increased, and services are ultimately only aiming to break even, the move to the JDUC hasn’t delivered the surge in revenue that early projections seemed to bank on. Turns out, curiosity doesn’t always come with a purchase.
With the move and reopening of multiple services, McNamara’s insight highlights a broader truth: even the most carefully built budgets are still, at their core, educated guesses—especially when they hinge on how, and how much, students choose to show up and spend.
As the year continues, the contrast between projected and actual revenue provides insight into assumptions made about student engagement, that aren’t reflective of broader market conditions in practice.
*Name changed for privacy reasons.
Tags
AMS, AMS services, Budgeting, Common Ground Coffeehouse, Queen's, The Queen's Pub, Tricolour Outlet
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