PCs take aim at NDP government for big property tax increases in Winnipeg

The Progressive Conservatives say the NDP government is to blame for property tax increases in Winnipeg, where bills from the municipality show school boards hiked their portion up to 2.5 times more than the city has since 2022.

“When the NDP came in, they removed all the guardrails to protect Manitoba homeowners, and now families are paying the price,” PC finance critic Lauren Stone said after question period Thursday.

The NDP scrapped a 50 per cent education property tax rebate after it was elected in 2023 and replaced it with a homeowners affordability tax credit. The annual credit will rise by $100 to $1,700 for a majority of homeowners in 2027. It will be reduced on a sliding scale for homes with assessed values of more than $1 million, and homes valued at more than $1.5 million will no longer receive the credit.

Stone pointed to a mailer from the city this week that shows school divisions such as Louis Riel and Seven Oaks have seen 43 and 37 per cent tax increases, respectively since 2022, while the City of Winnipeg portion of the tax bill has increased by just 17.5 per cent — “the lowest municipal property taxes on an average home of any major city in Canada,” it says.

It shows that school boards “control” 54 per cent of all property taxes collected in Winnipeg.

“The City of Winnipeg is essentially saying, ‘This is wrong, this is not our problem; this is the problem of the NDP government,’” said Stone (Midland). “This never happened under our government. We have never seen property taxes as high as they are right now.”

In question period, Premier Wab Kinew said that schools were underfunded by the PC government, and that 90 per cent of Manitobans are better off this year than they were under the Tories, thanks to the homeowners affordability tax credit.

He said his government is spending more on education and hiring more teachers and educational assistants “than ever before.”

Kinew said the PCs would cut education if they were in power.

“They want to go back to under-funding positions,” and provide fewer supports and clinical resources to help children grow and learn, he said.

“Which schools do they want to close?…. Which educational assistants do they want to fire?”

Kinew said the province is asking “huge property owners” and “the really rich” to pay more.

Stone said many Winnipeg homeowners and families are now struggling with their property taxes.

“It’s seniors on fixed incomes. It’s families who have maybe been in their homes for 10 years and are trying to figure out how to pay their property tax bill,” she said.

“The fact that school divisions now represent 54 per cent of a property tax bill — those are issues that have occurred under this NDP government because the NDP government made these changes.”

Last year, the city also sent out notices to explaining how the changes impact the property Tax Instalment Payment Plan program.’

Stone said the NDP has done such a poor job of managing the education property tax file that the City of Winnipeg has to include an insert into property tax bills, “essentially distancing themselves from the NDP’s tax grabs.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca