Sales-tax break a confusing mess

With less than 30 days to go before provincial sales tax is removed from a broad array of snacks and ready-to-eat meals, there remains little clarity on what exactly the NDP government of Manitoba is trying to achieve.

Grocery retailers — the original target group for Premier Wab Kinew’s confusing affordability measure — are reporting that they are still confused about what should be tax-free starting July 1 and what products will still be subject to the seven per cent PST.

There is a good reason for the confusion: the information available from the province about the new tax policy is incredibly vague.

In response to queries from the Winnipeg Free Press about confusion at the retail level, a provincial spokesman said all the information needed to implement the changes is available through a three-page document posted on the finance department’s website.

A quick review of that document reveals that it is anything but clear.

The categories of tax-free food items are broken down into ready-to-eat meals, beverages, baked goods, and snack foods. Seems simple enough — except that when you get into the fine print, the list makes little sense.

Someone thought it was a good idea to take the tax off de-alcoholized beer, but it would be nearly impossible to see the public value in a decision such as that.

Similarly, the long list of unhealthy, sugar and salt-laden snack foods — the kind of things our physicians are constantly warning us not to eat — is suddenly free of the unholy burden of PST. Drinkable yogurt tubes and bottles made the list of tax-free items, along with cake, pastries, tarts, flans, cookies, doughnuts, brownies, graham crackers and croissants with sweetened filling or coating.

One can only wonder what it was about a classic, uncoated, unfilled and savoury croissant that prompted it to be left off the list.

Some of these things, such as baked goods, could already be bought tax-free if six or more items are purchased. It is very hard to see how the opportunity to buy smaller quantities tax-free will make a meaningful improvement to the lives of Manitobans.

Retailers aren’t the only ones who will be confused.

Consumers will have to be mindful that if they want a single, tax-free pastry, they will have to buy it at a grocery store or larger convenience store; those same items sold at a food court or a fast-food drive-thru restaurant will still pay the tax.

And for reasons that defy logic, government decided that very small convenience stores (less than 3,000 sq. ft) which sell tobacco products — think about the small shops at gas stations — are not allowed to remove the tax from items. But those same items will sell tax-free at slightly larger convenience stores, some of which no doubt sell tobacco products.

They say the devil is in the details, but when the details are so random and vague, confusion will reign supreme.

There also remains the lingering but extremely important issue of potential harm that will be dealt to restaurants, cafeterias, food courts and food trucks, which were expressly excluded from this policy. Industry associations representing those businesses claim they couldn’t even get a meeting with someone from the Kinew government to express their concerns.

There seems to be no way to walk back this preposterous idea. One can only hope that, even after implementation on July 1, the Kinew government will continue to try and inject some common sense into this nonsensical policy.

As it stands now, Kinew’s affordability measure hits the trifecta of flawed public policy: poorly conceived, horribly implemented and of dubious value to Manitobans.

» Winnipeg Free Press