BSD proposes 7.25% property tax hike

The Brandon School Division board of trustees is recommending a 7.25 per cent education property tax increase as part of its 2026-27 preliminary budget.

The board’s recommendation followed deliberations at Monday’s special meeting, where trustees reviewed a draft financial plan projecting revenues of $145,574,382 and expenses of $148,004,090, resulting in a potential shortfall of $2,429,708 before senior administration requests were included.

The proposed property tax increase would make up for the total shortfall.

For the owner of an average single-family residential home with an assessed value of $301,300, the increase would mean an additional $138.49 in property taxes before provincial tax credits are applied, secretary-treasurer Denis Labossiere said.

The 7.25 per cent increase is a recommendation and will be subject to public consultation before final approval, board chair Linda Ross told the Sun after the meeting.

“It is a reasonable increase given the overall climate and the situation for education generally in the province,” she said in an interview. “As I said at the beginning of the meeting, there’s the provincial tax, there’s the local tax, but in the end, there’s only one taxpayer.”

She said the harmonization costs under the new provincial collective agreement for teachers are a significant pressure on the division’s budget.

The division is expected to receive a $5-million increase in provincial funding for the 2026-27 school year, according to a provincial backgrounder. The backgrounder was released alongside the NDP government’s announcement of a $79.8-million increase in overall public school funding.

The funding increase represents a 6.4 per cent jump from last year’s provincial allocation of $77.9 million. In the 2025-26 school year, the division received a four per cent increase, raising its total funding to that amount.

Ross said the provincial support helped prevent an even higher increase.

“I have to say that I am appreciative that the province put some money in for that, because initially they said, ‘No, that’s not going to be our problem. That’s going to be a local issue.’ That did help us to be able to come in at 7.25 instead of something higher.”

She said the board wanted to avoid a double-digit hike.

“I never want to see double digits,” Ross said.

Trustees were initially concerned the increase could be much higher, vice-chair Duncan Ross told the Sun.

“When preliminary discussions began in November, and provincial funding levels were uncertain, the possibility of a double-digit tax hike was considered,” he said in an interview. “Additional provincial support ultimately helped soften the impact, though the division still faced a shortfall of roughly $2.5 million.”

Proposals related to classroom supports were scaled back during the budget deliberation.

While 15 teaching positions, which the division cut as part of its cost-saving measures last year, were originally proposed for reinstatement at a cost of $1.575 million, trustees instead approved five positions totalling $525,250.

The board opted to phase in the remaining 10 positions over the next two years.

Restoring five full-time-equivalent teaching positions will help address enrolment-related pressures, Supt. Mathew Gustafson told the Sun.

“While growth has slowed this past year slightly, the division has experienced consistent enrolment increases annually and remains somewhat of an outlier within the province,” he said. “The additional staff will support the creation of classrooms in schools where larger class sizes have resulted from rising enrolment.”

A proposed change to the education assistant ratio model costing $616,680 was reduced, with $214,510 approved. Instructional support funding initially proposed at $930,000 was cut to $157,575 after trustees agreed to phase in the initiative over three years.

Gustafson said the staffing reductions that saved $2.4 million last year helped limit the 2025-26 tax increase to 6.78 per cent and reduced the starting tax point for 2026-27 to 4.54 per cent. Without those measures, he said the division could have faced double-digit increases combined with a much larger shortfall.

Trustees also considered a number of senior administration requests. They approved funding for two maintenance workers at a cost of $133,110, along with $275,000 for facility maintenance and adaptations. A carpenter position costing $100,260 was also approved to strengthen in-house maintenance capacity.

In the area of school safety, the board expanded a proposal for controlled and monitored access personnel. While nine full-time equivalent positions were initially presented for $302,150, trustees increased the allocation to 10.73 FTEs at a total cost of $360,140.

Cybersecurity measures were also enhanced, with trustees approving $66,460 for Security as a Service in response to evolving cyber threats.

Duncan Ross said the division is not overspending but focusing on growing maintenance pressures and past school closures caused by plumbing failures that may have been avoided with better-funded inspections.

“The board’s decisions reflect necessary investments rather than discretionary spending,” he said.

Looking ahead, trustees have set a base starting point of a 4.12 per cent property tax hike for the 2027-28 budget cycle. Chair Ross said long-term financial planning remains challenging due to annual provincial funding announcements, which often arrive late.

“We must put that at 4.12 per cent so that we don’t end up with massive increases,” she said. “There were some divisions that had double-digit increases last year. I can’t imagine what they’re starting with this year and the difficulties that’s going to present for them.”

Duncan Ross said the starting point for 2025-26 was 4.54 per cent, and that is higher than what the board is looking at next year.

“This year, we came to 7.25 percent, but what will come next year … We have no idea how much money we’re going to receive from the province,” he said.

“We don’t know what inflation is going to be like, and there are so many different factors that … there might be some new direction from the province, like this year we had a budget increase for controlled access.”

Public consultation on the proposed 2026-27 budget is expected to be held on Monday, March 2, before trustees move to formally adopt the final plan on March 9.

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