Property tax reality check

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/05/2025 (313 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like most Brandonites, I received my property tax bill in the mail this week. As I read the numbers, it felt like an unexpected punch to the gut. This year’s bill for the home I live in is $614.27 higher than last year’s, despite the fact that I haven’t done anything that would increase my home’s value in the past number of years.

The tax hike seemed to be much higher than the increase residential property owners were told to expect, so I pulled out my property tax bills since 2019 to examine how much the taxes on my home have risen since then.

I found that the municipal portion of my property taxes were $2,885.71 in 2019, $2,887.52 in 2020, $2,808.84 in 2021, $2,865.64 in 2022, $2,862.19 in 2023, $3,141.34 in 2024, and $3,369.83 this year.

As regards the education portion of my property taxes — the gross amount before any of the credits Manitobans have received over the past several years — the taxes were $2,806.88 in 2019, $2,775.25 in 2020, $2,741.67 in 2021, $2,711.48 in 2022, $2,624.85 in 2023, $2,701.42 in 2024, and $2,886.90 this year.

Like most homes in Brandon, the assessed value of my home has risen since 2019, but pretty much at the same rate as most other homes in the city. That means that the property tax history for my home over the past six years is similar to other homes in the city.

What do all those numbers tell us? First, property and school taxes didn’t rise much at all between 2019 and 2023. In fact, they were lower for my home in 2023 than they were in 2019 (likely due to overall assessment growth in the city) — and that’s despite the fact that the assessed value of my property increased during that time.

This reality reflects the fact that both the City of Brandon and Brandon School Division were doing their best to “hold the line” on property taxes. We now know, however, that the city may have been doing too good a job of keeping tax increases low. Last year’s MNP report made clear that the tax increases had not kept pace with the city’s spending requirements, particularly given the cost of several large infrastructure projects.

That leads to the second conclusion that we can draw from the numbers: The jump in city property taxes in 2024 and 2025 largely reflects recommendations in the MNP report, which called for increased property tax revenue in order to put the city on a firmer fiscal foundation.

Previous mayors and councils have been blamed for the big tax hikes over the past two years, on the basis that they should have been raising taxes at lower levels each year in order to at least keep pace with rising costs. The numbers I have set out above may support a different argument, however.

There is a reasonable possibility that, if city council had raised property taxes at higher rates between 2019 and 2023, our property tax rates today may actually be equal to, or even higher than, where they currently are. Viewed from that perspective, it is arguable that the previous mayor and council spared Brandonites from higher tax burdens during the pandemic, and that Brandon taxpayers are not really worse off today because of that.

That argument may become less persuasive over time if we experience several more years of large city tax increases, as the MNP report recommended, but it is a valid argument at this point in time.

Third, the reality is that a significant portion of the blame for the pain many property owners are experiencing this week is because of decisions made by the provincial government.

Prior to 2024, the Pallister and Stefanson governments provided “school tax rebates” to Manitobans, along with a “Manitoba Education property tax credit advance” for each property. For the 2025 tax year, however, the Kinew government has replaced those rebates with a “Manitoba Homeowners’ Affordability Tax Credit,” which reduces the school tax portion of property tax bills by up to $1,500.

The credit only applies to owner-occupied homes, however, meaning that rental and business properties will not receive the credit. Beyond that, the Kinew government’s decision to end the previous rebates and capping the amount of the new rebate at $1,500 means that many homeowners will receive a lower rebate than last year.

That’s what has happened to me. Last year, the “Manitoba Education property tax credit advance” and “Manitoba School Tax Rebate” added up to $1,700, meaning that my 2025 property tax bill is $200 higher because of that change. Thousands of other Manitoba homeowners are also facing higher school taxes for that reason.

Fourth and finally, the jump in school taxes also reflects the fact that more than 80 per cent of the Brandon School Division budget is made up of salaries paid to staff. With the advent of province-wide bargaining for teachers, the BSD has been hit with huge increases in staffing costs. The annual funding provided to the division by the provincial government has not kept pace with those higher costs, however, so the shortfall has to be passed on to property owners via higher taxes.

Having said all that, it’s important to have an accurate understanding of why your property taxes keep going up. What is far more important, however, is for governments to recognize that there is a limit to the taxes many Brandonites can realistically afford to pay, and that we are rapidly approaching the point when many will conclude that they can no longer afford to live in their homes.

At a time when many in our city and province are unable to afford to purchase a home, many homeowners are increasingly unable to afford to keep theirs. Something has to change.