Education increase a concern for taxes

Posted on March 27, 2025 by Vauxhall Advance

By Nikki Jamieson
Vauxhall Advance
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The provincial increase in the education tax will result in a much higher property tax bill this year.

During Vauxhall town council’s regular March 17 meeting, CFO Clark Holt said in the provincial budget that had just come out, they had drastically increased educational property taxes.

“Should that affect us? No, but it does because the government has us collect their education taxes for them,” said Holt. “I wish it wasn’t that way, because people get the bill from the town and assume it’s all property tax. But a big chunk of that is educational tax, and this year, an even bigger chunk of that is going to be education tax.”

When asked how much of an increase it would be, Holt said it would depend on a property’s assessment and would “hit different properties different”. When asked how much the education property tax went up, Holt said revenue from it was expected to rise from $2.7 billion in 2024/25 to $3.1 billion in 2025/26. This means that share of education operating costs being covered by the tax will rise to 31.6 per cent, compared to 28.5 per cent in 2023/24 and 29.5 per cent in 2024/25. It is expected to go up to 33 per cent for 2026/2027.

This means that the rates would go up from $2.56 to $2.72/$1,000 of equalized assessment for residential and farmland properties, and from $3.76 to $4.00/$1,000 for non-residential properties.

For Vauxhall specifically, this means they are going from collecting $271,000 to $323,000. How much it would impact an individual property would depend on their assessment. 

Funds for senior’s housing and education tax go to the province and are separate from a municipality’s property taxes, but the municipality is responsible for collecting both on behalf of the province. Vauxhall has yet to approve their final budget and tax rate bylaw for 2025. 

Coun. Kimberly Dorin asked if the town could ensure that they could explain the reason for the increase in their residents’ tax bill

“(With) new projects coming out and it’s going to increase, I think a lot of people are going to think it’s because of the projects,” said Dorin.

Assistant CAO Mindy Dunphy noted that they do do an insert where they explain for the increase. Mayor Kimberly Crawley also noted that the news would be province wide, as every municipality would be impacted by the increase. Holt advised putting something on the town’s website about it.