Minister should try truth, not spin

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/03/2025 (202 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you’re confused about the property tax increase passed this week by the Brandon School Division’s board of trustees, you’re probably not alone.

For those who haven’t been following the issue, the trustees voted in favour of a 6.78 per cent property tax increase in order pay for a shortfall of almost $6.7 million in this year’s BSD budget.

That percentage sounds high, but it’s actually less than the 8.79 per cent increase that was originally projected.

It took six hours of deliberations, and a number of difficult cuts, to arrive at the lower number.

(Full disclosure: My son, Duncan Ross, is a trustee. I am not related to board chair Linda Ross, however.)

With the prospect of higher school taxes piled on top of higher city taxes and water rates, you’re likely wondering why it is even necessary to raise the school taxes. After all, the provincial government is responsible for education and they have promised a new education funding formula that would likely eliminate property taxes as a source for that funding.

That’s a reasonable concern, but the reality is that the province does not fully fund education in Manitoba. It pays a portion of the total cost, but a growing part of each school division’s annual funding comes from property taxes levied within each division’s territory. It’s an inequitable system that punishes property owners, and that’s likely the reason why all other provinces have apparently abandoned that form of education funding.

In the case of this year’s provincial funding for the BSD, the trustees say that the province provided $3.3 million in additional funding, but that only $2.7 million of the new money can be applied toward the 10 per cent increase in the division’s expenses.

That left a shortfall of $6,699,768, and higher property taxes are the only way to make up the difference.

In a report published in this newspaper yesterday (“BSD class sizes likely to grow,” Feb. 28, 2025), Education Minister Tracy Schmidt is reported as saying that Brandon received a higher-than-average increase in funding compared to other school divisions, and that the increase was about 4.5 per cent for Brandon for the 2025-26 year, compared to an average of 3.4 per cent across the province.

That’s misleading. The province announced the funding it was providing to the Manitoba’s 37 school divisions on Feb. 10.

The media release relating to that announcement included a “backgrounder” document that set out the specific funding that each division was receiving.

According to that document, the “2025-26 Total Funding Increase — With Federal Nutrition Funding” for Brandon as 4.5 per cent, but that percentage includes the federal money the division would receive for the school lunch program. That money can’t be used to pay other expenses.

The backgrounder document also says that the “2025-26 Provincial Operating Support Increase — With Nutrition Funding” for Brandon is four per cent but, again, that includes money earmarked for the lunch program.

Schmidt’s comments in yesterday’s paper suggest that Brandon received a generous funding increase, and that the tax increase approved by the trustees is unjustified.

That’s BS. Brandon received a much smaller increase than last year, and this year’s increase is millions of dollars less than what is needed to balance this year’s budget — and that shortfall would be even higher if the board hadn’t made the cuts it has been forced to make.

The province negotiated generous wage increases for teachers via province-wide bargaining, yet is refusing to pay the additional cost that Brandon, and every other division in the province, is incurring because of those higher wages.

That cost, along with higher salaries for other staff, is being passed onto school divisions and, ultimately, onto property owners through higher property taxes.

Given the financial information that Schmidt’s department receives from each school division, it is impossible to believe that she is unaware that the funding increase would not come close to covering the additional expenses the BSD is facing. Given that (very strong) likelihood, why can’t she just be honest about it?

Why can’t she just admit that her government isn’t giving school divisions the money they need to cover the additional salary costs, and that they have decided to shove those costs onto property owners?

That would be a difficult admission, but at least it would be the truth.

And it would stand as an exception to the troubling trend of politicians who consistently refuse to deliver the straight goods to the people who pay their salaries.