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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.
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.
Kinew made the announcement as his NDP government prepares to unveil the 2026 provincial budget Tuesday.
‘Welcome news for the rest of Canada’
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.
“Now, will that help food security in Manitoba? Very minimally, I think, because of course you still have the GST, and there are other factors that are actually making food more expensive, but it is actually going to help in some way.”
The measure could also “create a bit of a disadvantage” for restaurants, Charlebois says, because a grocery store’s ready-to-eat counter is basically “a restaurant without the tips and the alcohol.”
Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, says the measure will remove some pressure on consumers. (Zoom)
More products at the grocery store are being categorized as snacks rather than food — becoming taxable — each year because of shrinkflation, which is when a company shrinks a product but not the price or packaging, Charlebois said.
“So, at the cashier, you were either surprised, or for people who didn’t even look at their receipts, they were paying for a tax they didn’t know … was there,” he said.
“With the removal of the PST, you kind of soften that blow, essentially.”
Canada is likely to experience higher inflation in the coming months because the U.S.-Israel war with Iran has led to higher fuel prices, Charlebois said.
“It’s less pressure … on consumers,” he said of the province’s move. “It’s not a whole lot, but it is less.”
