Kids clothing store owner thinks PST expansion could be hit to families

Provincial sales tax being applied to kids clothing could come at a significant price to some families, along with businesses.

The newly increased six per cent PST will be expanded to cover children’s clothes beginning April 1.

Cecilia Kautzman is preparing for that day. She’s the owner of Kids Trading Company in Regina.

“I was definitely shocked. I really didn’t think that it would be on something like children’s wear,” she said. “That’s quite a hit for families.”

Depending on what article of clothing somebody buys, Kautzman – a mother herself – said it can tack on a few dollars more with every purchase. Buy several items at a time and extrapolate that over the course of a year and she said it can be an unavoidable cost for parents.

“It’s not a choice for them to buy kids clothes. It’s something that has to be done and it has to be done quite often because kids grow.”

“I could see people definitely being more cautious spending and just buying sort of the bare necessities as opposed to maybe getting extras,” Kautzman added.

If families have less to spend, she said everything else in the economy will suffer, guessing that profits at her business could be impacted as well.