Tax cuts are the best way to make life more affordable in Newfoundland and Labrador. The provincial government proved it in this year’s budget. So why is it flirting with a government grocery store scheme that won’t work?

Budget 2026 delivered more than $200 million in tax relief.

The government made the gas tax cut permanent, keeping the tax at 7.5 cents per litre instead of letting it jump back to 14.5.

It raised the basic personal amount, the income you can earn before paying provincial income tax, from $11,188 to $15,000.

It extended the 50 per cent cut to vehicle registration fees, saving taxpayers $25 million.

And it’s cutting the small business tax rate every year for the next three years.

That’s the right way to help with affordability. It leaves money in people’s pockets and lets them decide how to spend it, including at the grocery store checkout.

But then came one of the worst ideas out of Confederation Building in years.

Finance Minister Craig Pardy said the provincial government is open to the idea of a government-owned grocery store if it helps with affordability. New Democratic Leader Jim Dinn raised the idea in the house of assembly, after it was floated federally by New Democratic Leader Avi Lewis.

Politicians want you to believe they can run a grocery store cheaper than the pros. They can’t. Government grocery stores don’t work where they’ve been tried.

The Illinois government bankrolled a grocery store in Cairo, Ill., in 2023, to give residents cheaper food. It ran into financial trouble almost right away and couldn’t draw enough shoppers to cover its costs.

There’s a simple reason private grocers beat government every time: competition.

A grocer who gives customers better value wins and forces the competition to sharpen up or shut down. That means finding ways to cut costs and squeeze every dollar. It’s why a giant like Walmart runs on a profit margin of about three per cent, even with grocery prices climbing.

Government has no such pressure. When a government operation runs into trouble, it doesn’t innovate. It swipes the taxpayer credit card.

And there’s no way the government can match grocers who’ve spent decades in the business.

Big chains have stores across the country, buy in bulk and sell more food for less. They’ve built relationships with producers to offer cheaper no-name brands. A handful of government stores scattered across the province could never build that kind of scale.

And here’s the part politicians won’t tell you: This province can’t afford the experiment.

The provincial debt is set to climb to $21 billion by the end of 2026, a seven per cent jump since last year.

Interest costs are projected to hit $1.2 billion. That works out to about $2,100 for every Newfoundlander and Labradorian, money wasted on interest charges instead of lower taxes or the services people count on.

A government that’s already $21 billion in the hole has no business gambling tax dollars on a grocery store. Taxpayers would be left holding the bill for the losses.

The folks pushing this idea are right about one thing. The cost of living in this province is brutal and families are struggling to fill their carts.

But even after this year’s budget, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians still pay some of the highest taxes in the country, including the highest sales tax and some of the highest income taxes.

So the government should stick with what works: more tax cuts.

Cutting the sales tax by two percentage points would put more than $700 back in the pockets of the average family every year. That’s real money families can spend filling their carts, without the government risking a single tax dollar on shelves and checkouts.

Thinking politicians and bureaucrats can run a grocery chain is like expecting a fishing boat to fly.

Budget 2026 showed the government already knows tax cuts work. If Pardy and his colleagues want to make groceries cheaper, the answer isn’t a government store. It’s building on those cuts and getting rid of the wasteful spending and high taxes that made everything so expensive in the first place.

Then Newfoundlanders and Labradorians can afford to fill their carts on their own.