Scott Stinson: ‘No Tax on Food’ is a slogan that Doug Ford will have a tough time resisting

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles’ proposal to eliminate the provincial share of HST on all food and drink items would be less of a tax savings for the wealthy homeowner than for someone working in the gig economy and grabbing something to eat on the way home. Photo by Adobe Stock

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Short of hoping that Doug Ford would manage to buy himself another luxury vehicle before the Ontario legislature breaks for summer, Opposition Leader Marit Stiles and team have been presumably casting about for an issue that could score them some points during the final stretch of what has been a rocky few weeks for the premier.

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She might have just landed on something.

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At an event in Scarborough on Friday morning, Stiles said the NDP would introduce a bill at Queen’s Park next week that would eliminate the provincial share of HST on all food and drink items — from rotisserie chickens to potato chips to Slushies — to help combat the ever-rising cost of groceries.

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There are some justifiable reasons for eye-rolling a little at the suggestion. One, it is another example of Stiles lifting a policy straight out of the playbook of Wab Kinew, the popular NDP premier of Manitoba. Do they not have anyone else they can call for ideas? Two, it is one of those pocketbook populist ideas that under other circumstances the NDP would be complaining about. Reducing the overall tax base is not a great way to direct more spending to important progressive causes.

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And yet, at this moment in time, there is no disputing that groceries have become painfully expensive for many, and any government, Ford’s in particular, is going to have a hard time arguing against a policy that would alleviate some of that pain. “No Tax on Food,” as the sign said on the podium in front of Stiles on Friday, makes for a fine slogan right now.

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A Bank of Canada report in February said that grocery prices had risen by about 22 per cent since 2022, well above the 13 per cent increase in consumer prices in general, and that the food-related increases were persistent while other categories had seen inflation ease in recent years.

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This is not news to anyone who has wandered down a grocery aisle. Coffee has evidently become a precious resource. Beef is so expensive that meatloaf must now be considered a luxury item. Meatloaf!

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But those items, like most grocery staples, are already tax-exempt, which is where Stiles’ proposal gets interesting. Normally an NDP demand to remove a consumer tax from something can properly be ridiculed because it ends up giving the biggest benefit to the wealthy. Cutting the tax on home heating, to pick one example, grants a huge savings to someone living in a 4,000-square-foot home, but much less of one to someone renting a 700-square-foot apartment.

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But a removal of the sales tax on all food would be most noticeable on prepared meals and various snacks, the kinds of items that low-income workers are more likely to be purchasing than, say, fine cuts of (tax-exempt) steak. That is, the wealthy homeowner who buys her groceries from the neighbourhood boutique shop would likely see less of a tax savings under Stiles’ proposal than someone working in the gig economy and grabbing something to eat on the way home from Wal-Mart or the dollar store.