The Canadian Beverage Association is calling on government to pause the sugar-sweetened beverage tax to allow both industry and consumers to recover from the pandemic and alleviate inflationary prices.
The CBA says locally-owned businesses must spend tens of thousands of dollars in up-front investment to update billing systems. However, they argue that these costs cannot be recouped by businesses, citing rising cost pressures, including record-high fuel prices, which are stressing delivery systems.
Carolyn Fell, Vice-President of the CBA, says the cost of implementing this tax will put pressure on consumers, who just can’t afford another hit.
The CBA offered to fund, implement and measure a made-in-Newfoundland-and-Labrador public education campaign designed to encourage people to balance their beverage calories in lieu of the tax.
They say this would have cost the government nothing to administer, taking no money away from the people of the province.
Fell says they stand firm in their commitment to reducing beverage calories in the Canadian diet, encouraging government to consider what she calls an inclusive, thoughtful, measurable, and comprehensive public outreach program in lieu of taxation.
A representative from the Atlantic Grocery Distributors says the provincial government’s tax on sugary drinks will cost businesses “hundreds of thousands of dollars in infrastructure,” leading them to call for a delay in implementation.
John Pritchett says that while the organization believes the province needs to become healthier and that the food and beverage industry have an important role to play, the sugar tax is not a reasonable solution.
He says restaurants and retailers will deal with “cost on top of cost”, arguing that coming out of the pandemic “we don’t need to be adding to people’s grocery bills.”
Pritchett says the tax isn’t simply being applied to soft drinks, something many don’t understand.
This tax covers any beverage that is sugar-sweetened, including juice blends, juice boxes, and flavoured coffee creamers. The cost is 20 cents a litre. He says when you start looking at the beverages people consume day to day, the bills start to pile up.
