• Albertans save about $18 million with no PST on school supplies

LETHBRIDGE, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers is highlighting savings for Alberta parents during back-to-school shopping because the province has no PST.

“Parents who are shopping for back-to-school supplies in Alberta are saving about $50 per family because we don’t have PST here,” said Kris Sims, Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “Inflation is making things much tougher to manage, but it’s still more affordable here because we don’t pay a provincial sales tax.”

Alberta is home to more than 700,000 students enrolled in kindergarten to grade 12 who are returning to school within the next two weeks.

A 2023 Deloitte survey shows Canadian parents will spend an average of $597 on back-to-school supplies per student.

If Alberta parents spend $350 per student on back-to-school items, they are saving more than $18 million this year because they aren’t paying a seven per cent PST on things like shoes, clothes, notebooks, pens, backpacks, lunch kits and laptops.

“The provincial sales tax we don’t pay on school tech really stands out, since we are saving about $20 on a simple laptop,” Sims said. “The next time someone is pushing for a PST in Alberta, parents should remember how these costs add up.”

Here’s how Alberta’s savings stack up when compared to other provinces:

British Columbia has a PST of seven per cent. While some school supplies are PST-exempt, parents often must go through a complicated process to avoid the tax. In B.C., for example, backpacks and knapsacks carry a PST charge, but “bags specifically designed to carry school books” don’t have the tax. Families in B.C. will spend about $15 million in PST on back to school supplies this year.

Saskatchewan has a PST of six per cent and it applies to nearly all back-to-school supplies such as pens, paper, shoes, clothes and tech. Rare exceptions exist. For example, Saskatchewan’s sales tax is charged on maps, but not atlases. Families in Saskatchewan will spend about $3.9 million in PST on back-to-school supplies this year.

Ontario has a retail sales tax of eight per cent, which is harmonized with the federal GST. Some provincial sales tax exemptions for children’s clothing and children’s shoes costing less than $30 exist in Ontario but exemptions are few. Families in Ontario will spend about $50 million in PST on back to school supplies this year. 

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