Homeowners slapped with 'unreasonable' 25% hike to school taxes: East St. Paul CAO

Some homeowners in the River East Transcona School Division are expected to pay hundreds of dollars more in property taxes this year, even after a provincial rebate, following a hike to school taxes in the division.

In a letter tabled by the Opposition Progressive Conservatives during Wednesday's question period at the Manitoba Legislature, the chief administrative officer of the Rural Municipality of East St. Paul says the tax levied by the division is going up 25.75 per cent this year. 

Last year, Manitoba's NDP government lifted a multi-year freeze, ordered by the former Progressive Conservative government, on school taxes.

According to the CAO's letter, the owner of an East St. Paul home valued at $500,000 in 2024 can expect to pay just over $1,900 this year — compared to just over $1,000 last year — in school division taxes, after factoring in the province's $1,500 tax rebate.

A hike in property assessment values in East St. Paul for 2025, set every two years, is also part of the increase. The home assessed at $500,000 in 2024 used as an example in the letter would be valued this year at nearly $614,000.

In a statement to CBC, the division said it's important to note a change to the provincial education tax refund "has a significant impact on homes with a higher value."

Under the PC government, homeowners got a 50 per cent education provincial property tax rebate and a $350 education tax credit. The NDP has now replaced that with a flat rebate of up to $1,500, which it has argued will leave most homeowners better off.

East St. Paul CAO Suzanne Ward acknowledged the effect of the property assessment increase, but said in a statement the school division's levy is "unreasonable," and the RM is asking the province to review it. 

"This letter is a cry for help," Grant Jackson, the Progressive Conservative education critic, told reporters Wednesday.

"We've never seen tax increases to these levels in the province's history, and it's completely unacceptable at a time of increasing unaffordability and in the middle of a threatened trade war." 

Jackson blamed the hike on the "NDP's failure to properly fund education."

NDP blames hike on PC's funding freeze

Manitoba Education Minister Tracy Schmidt maintains the province is providing healthy school funding, and blamed the previous Tory government's years-long freeze on school division property taxes for increases homeowners are now seeing.

"We know that school divisions have a lot of catching up to do. We're here to work with them to do that work," Schmidt said.

But Jackson said by the time the PCs were defeated in 2023, more than 80 per cent of education funding came from the treasury board, rather than property taxes. He said the NDP should carry on his party's plan to reshape the education funding model, basing it on general government revenues and cutting school taxes altogether.

Lauren Stone, the Opposition's finance critic, said  Manitoba is one of the last jurisdictions in Canada to fund education from property taxes, calling it "a very antiquated policy that doesn't really truly exist anywhere else."

With more housing demand than supply, Jackson said it is likely property assessments will continue to rise, along with school taxes — another reason to phase out the existing model, he said.

"This is a completely inequitable, and frankly irresponsible, way to fund education," said Jackson. "Manitoba homeowners of every income level are going to be paying the price."