Winnipeg School Division, Pembina Trails looking to raise property taxes

At least two school divisions in Winnipeg — including the city's largest — are looking to hike property taxes after the provincial government lifted a freeze on such hikes.

The Winnipeg School Division says it needs to raise property taxes for residents to match inflation.

The division is recommending a 3.4 per cent increase, which it says amounts to about an extra $51 a year for an average household in the division (based on an average home value of around $250,000).

Superintendent Matt Henderson said the hike is necessary to maintain the quality of programming in the division, which, with 79 schools and a student population of roughly 30,000, is the largest in Manitoba.

"We have some significant pressures around employee settlements coming up and just the simple cost of doing business, of keeping our buildings heated and water and electricity, and other services — the cost of living has just gone up significantly," he told CBC in a Thursday interview.

Meanwhile, the Pembina Trails School Division has unveiled a draft budget that includes a three per cent increase, amounting to about $59 a year for a typical home owner. 

"While the division has received a slight increase in overall funding, it is not enough to keep up with student enrolment increases, salary increases and fixed cost increases like utilities," the division said in a statement issued Thursday.

Earlier this month, the provincial NDP government announced it would let school divisions raise property taxes, lifting a multi-year freeze put in place by the former Progressive Conservative government.

While most other school divisions in the city saw a bump of 4.7 per cent to 5.6 per cent in provincial funding, the WSD received a one per cent boost ($2.6 million), based on its shrinking student population.

However, actual funding from the province will be $4.8 million higher, to cover the expansion of the school nutrition program.

Pembina Trails will see a two per cent increase, plus funding for the expansion.

"Salaries are increasing certainly far more than one per cent," Henderson said.

"Even the consumables in our industrial art shops are going up by more than one per cent, and the cost of of feeding kids, which we do on a regular basis and we have done historically, is going up."

The division says it has also identified almost $4 million in administrative savings.

Looking to cut class sizes

Henderson said the proposed tax is progressive, so people who have less won't pay as much. A provincial rebate would also cut the net amount residents pay by half, he said.

The division plans to use the funding to reduce K-8 class sizes, aiming for a ratio of one teacher for every 20 students, he said. It also wants to add more learning support teachers, to meet a 1:80 ratio.

The division is also prioritizing hiring more librarians, adding musical instruction and phasing out its paid supervised lunch program.

"We don't feel that parents should have to pay for their kids to have lunch at school," said Henderson.

"We're also wanting to expand some of our settlement and adult education services, and in some of the pockets of the school division, we want to make sure that parent advisory groups don't have to pay for playgrounds," he said.

"We want to make sure that we're putting as many resources into Indigenous education as possible as well."

The division says a 3.4 per cent property tax increase would give it about an extra $2.4 million to put toward "budget priorities" indicated by the community.

The final consultation on the proposed budget will be held on Feb. 26 at Tec Voc High School.