Newfoundland and Labrador’s sugar sweetened beverage tax is set to be introduced next September.
The tax will be 20 cents per litre and will be applied to the price on the shelf to have the greatest impact on consumers.
The tax itself will be collected by wholesalers and self-assessing retailers.
It applies to a wide range of products. ready-to-drink beverages, such as bottled soda and fruit-flavoured drinks, concentrated drink mixtures like flavoured powders and dispensed beverages like fountain and frozen slush drinks.
The tax does not apply to drinks sweetened with non-caloric sweeteners, such as diet drinks, 100 per cent natural fruit or vegetable juices, ingredients intended to be used in cooking or food preparation, and drinks prepared at the point of sale, like coffee and tea.
Several categories of drinks are exempt from the tax; those include alcohol, medical or therapeutic beverages—such as infant formula and meal replacements, white and chocolate milk, fortified plant-based milks, and yogurt beverages, drinks packaged in containers holding less than 75 ml, and beverages brought in to the province by consumers if the quantity is 5 litres or less.
The bill still needs to go through the house of assembly for approval. The estimated benefit to the province will be around $9-million per year.
Opposition, Union React to Sugary Drink Tax
Reaction to the new sugar tax has been swift.
The Opposition is calling the proposed tax an attack on low-income earners, and not a solution for the province’s healthcare crisis.
Opposition Finance Critic, Tony Wakeham says government should have made healthy options more accessible, rather than targeting low-income earners.
Meanwhile, NAPE—which represents over 60 workers at Browning Harvey, is calling the proposed tax regressive and misguided.
President Jerry Earle says the tax does not make sense on a number of levels.
He says it will hit those least able to pay, the hardest. He indicates that taxation on these types of products is not the answer to some of the benefits government claims will result.