Victoria Beach sees hefty school tax hike

Elected officials in Victoria Beach are the latest to warn that sticker-shock will be inevitable when their neighbours — the overwhelming majority of whom are seasonal cottagers — receive their school tax bills.

The Lord Selkirk School Division has asked the rural municipality to collect $2,979,485 in taxes on its behalf, up 26.6 per cent from 2024, to fund public education.

“We have to fund our schools appropriately, but there’s reasonable and then there’s unreasonable and such a drastic increase (falls into the latter category),” said Steve Axworthy, a municipal councillor who is an outlier in that he lives in the resort town year-round.

Axworthy said there’s a disconnect between the hefty fees that residents pay and the number of students who live in his hometown.

Statistics Canada data indicate there are about 55 school-aged students in the RM. That translates to residents paying upwards of $50,000 per student, Axworthy said.

The majority of current property owners have inherited multi-generational cabins, he said.

More than 85 per cent of property owners have a primary residence located elsewhere, per the municipal office’s statistics. The average house is valued at $285,000.

Regardless of one’s real estate portfolio, all individuals who owned an average-priced property in Victoria Beach paid the same school fees last year.

That is no longer the case, given Premier Wab Kinew’s government has replaced the universal 50 per cent education property tax rebate with a credit of up to $1,500 on principal residences only.

The municipal office’s data indicates if a seasonal resident paid $641 in school taxes on an average house last year, their 2025 bill will be $1,621. The same individual’s standalone municipal tax bill is slated to climb by $51, year-over-year.

“Primary residences will see a tax decrease, but for a majority of (Victoria Beach) property owners there will be a tax shock after opening the tax statement and seeing such a huge increase,” said Lon Turner, chief administrative officer for the RM, in an email. “Our office is expecting a lot of phone calls this summer!”

The higher-than-usual hikes reflect an increase in local property values and new developments, resulting in the town’s population being asked to pay more of the school board’s expenses this year. The average property value in Victoria Beach rose 34.2 per cent from 2024 to 2025.

This year’s fees also reflect local trustee efforts to make up for provincial operating funding shortfalls dating back to at least 2017.

Kelly McDonald, secretary-treasurer of the school division, noted numerous factors affect its levy every year. For instance, the division’s special requirement is growing 14.4 per cent overall, but Victoria Beach residents are footing a greater percentage of the tab in 2025 because local property values grew significantly, she noted.

The chief financial officer said she responded to numerous complaints in recent weeks and relayed that there is currently no provincial mechanism to exempt people from school fees if they do not have a student enrolled in the division.

The school board had two options during its latest budget season — trustees could either raise property education taxes or “significantly decrease programming,” she said.

The Association of Manitoba Municipalities has called for a modernization of Manitoba’s “outdated education funding model” and greater clarity on tax bills.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

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