Provincial sales taxes will be removed from more grocery store items under Manitoba’s next budget, and one researcher says the province may be the first to do so.

Currently, Manitobans pay provincial sales tax (PST) on prepared food and drinks sold for immediate consumption.

That includes “rotisserie chickens, salads, a case of Bubly — all the stuff that you’re grabbing on the way home when you’re in a rush and you gotta try and put a meal on the table for the family,” Premier Wab Kinew announced in a post on social media Tuesday.

“After our budget passes — assuming it passes by July 1 — that will all be tax free,” Kinew said.

It’s a “bold move” that will relieve some pressure on Manitobans at the grocery store, says Sylvain Charlebois, director of Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab in Nova Scotia.

Manitoba may be the first Canadian province to eliminate the tax at the grocery store, he said.

“I think it should be welcome news for the rest of Canada, as far as I’m concerned, [and] I think perhaps other provinces should follow suit,” Charlebois told CBC News.

  • SamuelRJankis@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    9·
    6 days ago

    BC really should have done something like this as well. They were going to be in a deficit either way, might as well try to quell the people with something like this.

    Food and drinks considered “basic groceries” are already exempted from the tax in Manitoba, including fruits and vegetables, most meat and milk products, eggs, coffee and oil.

    Winnipegger Sanjay Sewpaul, who has four kids and pays about $1,500 on groceries each moth, said the move is good news and likely to help businesses, but he doesn’t feel like it will “do too much” for consumers.

    He spent $305 on groceries in Winnipeg on Tuesday, including $6.58 in PST.

    • twopi@lemmy.caEnglish
      7·
      6 days ago

      I’m guessing the companies will just raise the prices to capture the $6.58. After all they were willing to pay for it before.

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
        1·
        6 days ago

        They will raise to make more profit and hope customers still pay, but the company collecting PST doesn’t keep it, its a feed through transfer to CRA

      • SamuelRJankis@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        6 days ago

        As someone who said the same when they removed the Carbon tax I do somewhat agree.

        But contextually the BC NDP is very unpopular in the latest polling and people are extremely price sensitive these days. I’m not really sure the removal will really help people out much but it will gain some votes and allow them to point the finger at people like Loblaws for the inflation.