Seven Oaks raises taxes in lieu of program cuts

Northwest Winnipeg

The Seven Oaks School Division will be raising taxes to avoid cutting staff and programs, it said in a media release shortly after the release of its 2023-24 budget.

The division said the province touted a $3.3 million budget increase this year as a 3.8 per cent increase, but noted that, when coupled with a tax freeze, the increase translates to 2.1 per cent, which board chair Maria Santos said does not cover increased enrolment nor inflation and increasing wage pressures.

Santos added, in the release, that due to substantial growth in the number of new homes, apartments and businesses in the SOSD catchment area, the increase for each household will be slight.

Homeowners with properties valued at $341,000, the average in the area, will see an annual tax increase of $118 — although 50 per cent of that will be returned in the education property tax rebate.

The release says the tax hike allows all existing programs to continue before the decision to raise taxes, the school division wrestled with the possibility of eliminating all busing for urban students in grades 7 to 12; shutting down programs that teach students to swim, skate, and cycle; cancelling all after-school programs and summer programs; and charging for lunch supervision, band instruments and field trips.

Seven Oaks School Division superintendent Brian O’Leary said cutting some of these programs would cause trouble for many families in the division.

“If we start charging parents and charging kids, we’re pressuring families where their budget is tight already and erecting barriers for kids to participate,” he said.

O’Leary said the board felt the tax hike was necessary to stop the bleeding after years of significant cuts.

“We’ve had five years of staff cuts and frozen budgets … so the board felt that this was the best course for us to take this year,” he said.

O’Leary said the division receives the lowest funding of any division in the city, and with the province announcing significant increases in overall school funding, he said the result for his division was disappointing.

“The distribution was just very perplexing to us and some other school divisions. We’ve historically had a tax -base that’s kind of modest homes and small businesses. We’ve seen a lot of growth recently but weren’t able to really benefit from that growth,” O’Leary said. “In fact, we were disadvantaged in equalization payments.”

O’Leary said the division will be adding about 10 teachers to its payroll, but that’s to cover about 350 kids, as the division prepares for a boost in enrolment in the area.