Budget 2026: Another opportunity lost for Canada's corner stores
A year ago in this space, CICC wrote that Ottawa's obsession with nation-building was causing it to overlook community building. We asked for two simple things--fairness and action. Budget 2026 was the chance to deliver both. Instead, it is another opportunity lost.
To be fair, there is no new tax grab on tobacco, vaping or alcohol this year. And Ottawa will consult on supplier practices that stop retailers from offering lower prices. We intend to be at that table. But "Masters of Our Destiny" was billed as a budget about entrepreneurs. Corner store owners will search its pages and struggle to find themselves.
Start at the pump. The government is quick to take credit for extending the fuel excise holiday through January, saving drivers about $5 a fill-up. What it won't talk about is who paid for the transition. When the consumer carbon tax vanished overnight and again when the excise tax was paused, retailers were left holding fuel they had already paid tax on—with no way to get it back at the pump. We asked for that money to be returned. The budget was silent.
Here is the irony: That same budget sets aside $20 million to refund fuel wholesalers who were taxed twice on the same fuel. So, Ottawa agrees businesses shouldn't carry a tax they were never meant to pay. Its sense of fairness simply stops at the wholesaler's loading dock.
Then there is contraband. Last year's budget offered $50 million over five years for border security and contraband tobacco. This year, $182.4 million goes to the Canada Revenue Agency to chase money laundering, illicit income and fentanyl trafficking. Illegal tobacco isn't mentioned once. That's despite the EY report that found the illicit trade generated $1.07 billion in 2024 and cost Ottawa up to $1.27 billion in excise taxes between 2023 and 2025. Border officers in southern Ontario alone have seized more than $52 million in illegal tobacco and nicotine products this year. You cannot fight illicit income while ignoring one of its biggest sources.
Credit card fees are still among the highest costs of running a store. Once again, nowhere to be found in the budget. Retailers even pay card fees on the taxes they collect for the government, about $79 million a year, for the privilege of handling someone else's money.
The budget's big business measures—the $36-billion Productivity Mega Deduction and the new Canada Growth Incentive—are built for companies buying machinery and investors cashing out. They do little for the owner of a gas bar in Corner Brook or a dépanneur in Trois-Rivières.
None of this is because our industry isn't pulling its weight. Our latest State of the Industry report counts 20,843 stores, more than 183,000 jobs and $54.5 billion in sales. After a decade of losses, the store count has stopped falling, up 243 this year despite rising costs and a booming illicit market. Let's be clear about what that means. We are holding steady. We have not recovered.
Look closer and you see what partnership can do. In Ontario, where beer and wine are now on convenience store shelves, the network grew and accounts for almost the entire national gain this year. And after ten years of decline, 29 brand-new stores opened their doors. We did that with one hand tied behind our back, under rules that still make it harder than it should be for small retailers to make the program work. Imagine what this industry could do if governments fixed that, then brought the same spirit of partnership to fuel, contraband and card fees. That is the case CICC makes every day.
We are ready, willing and able. We check ID on age-restricted products with a compliance record few retailers can match. Last year we collected $21.1 billion in taxes for governments, about $1 million per store, at no charge. We keep rural and remote communities supplied. And we know the illicit market better than any regulator, because we compete against it every day.
What we need is an honest partner. One that consults before it acts. One that fixes the problems it creates. One that sees the people behind Canada's corner stores as part of the solution, not the problem.
The budget implementation bill is still to come. So are the consultations. There is still time to get this right. Our door is open: Is Ottawa's?
