A convenience store owner in Amherst, N.S., is blaming lower prices and lower taxes just across the border in New Brunswick for his business failure.

His business was showing a profit, Tony Hubert said, when he bought it just seven months ago.

"I had no schemes of getting rich. All I wanted to do is put a roof over my head and have a job," he said Thursday.

But within weeks of taking over the convenience store, Nova Scotia's NDP government raised taxes on a carton of cigarettes by $10, and many of his customers have disappeared, Hubert said.

Business has been so poor that he's decided to shut the store for good on Friday night.

To prove his point, Hubert did a little cross border shopping himself.

He found that gas was six cents a litre cheaper in New Brunswick, and a two-litre carton of milk cost $3.35, compared to $3.91 in Nova Scotia. Provincial marketing boards set milk prices.

Hubert paid $6.02 for a pack of cigarettes.

"My cost on those cigarettes, before I put my mark-up, is $7.95. Two bucks cheaper. You can't compete," he said.

Hubert has even been suggesting to his customers to take their business to New Brunswick.

"I have to take some responsibility for my own downfall, but at the same time, I'm honest," he said.

Nova Scotia Finance Minister Graham Steele is scheduled to take his budget consultations to Amherst on Feb. 22., and Hubert wants to have a chat with him.

"You show me where I went wrong, you show me how I take a business that has been here for 50 years and seven months later, can't make a go of it, " Hubert said.

He said the government is responsible for preventing him and other storeowners in Cumberland County from being able to compete.