But NDP Leader Earle McCurdy said taxing junk food would still be better than increasing the cost of buying books. That would give the government substantially more revenue than the new provincial tax on books, which will add $2.1 million a year when it's fully implemented. Finance Minister Cathy Bennett says a new junk food tax would be costly for a small province to implement. Earlier this year, they were used by Finance Minister Cathy Bennett as her rationale for nixing a junk food tax as a way to raise money. Since HST is already applied to junk food, a new provincial tax would need to be added — a complication Bennett said the provincial government can't afford.

Source: CBC News July 06, 2016 09:33 UTC