Manitoba finance minister touts education funding, won’t acknowledge some divisions feel it’s fallen short

Manitoba’s finance minister says the NDP is funding education adequately, yet won’t acknowledge some school divisions are raising taxes because they feel provincial funding hasn’t kept pace.

Manitoba is forecasting $1.023 billion in education property tax revenues this fiscal year, according to the province’s second-quarter financial update.

That’s up from $764 million in 2024-25 and represents a nearly 34 per cent increase in education property tax revenues in one year.

Recently, some school divisions have said they’re raising taxes for the current fiscal year because provincial funding isn’t keeping pace with increasing costs. Education property taxes in Manitoba are collected by municipalities and accounted for by the province.

Finance Minister Adrien Sala was asked more than once Tuesday why several school divisions have proposed hiking taxes if they are being funded as adequately as he says.

‘We’re funding it adequately:’ Sala

Sala said the NDP has funded education higher than the rate of inflation since being elected in 2023. He touted an $80-million, or 3.5 per cent, overall increase in education funding as an improvement on underfunding from the Tory government.

“For years, education received significant cuts that created I think a big backlog and some challenges across the province,” Sala said after question period Tuesday. “But finally, we’re funding it adequately.”

He pointed to the NDP’s education property tax credit, now at $1,600 for the year, up from $1,500, as a way the government is helping homeowners.

The Progressive Conservatives offered a 50 per cent rebate during the party’s last year in power.

“They removed the rebate completely and replaced it with, quite frankly, a weaker $1,500 — now $1,600 — credit that is not even making up for the taxes that Winnipeg families are seeing as these property tax bills begin to come out and these school division budgets are released,” PC finance critic Lauren Stone said Tuesday.

One month ago, Pembina Trails School Division’s board of trustees announced a 9.9 per cent mill rate increase in its 2026-27 draft budget because of a “significant shortfall” it attributed to reduced baseline funding from the provincial government.

The Winnipeg School Division draft budget includes a proposed mill rate increase of 9.25 per cent. That would mean the owners of a home worth $270,000 would pay $65 more per year, a home assessed at $300,000 would cost $83 more annually, and homes valued at $400,000 would cost $144 more, according to a division budget presentation in February.

On Tuesday, the City of Winnipeg’s executive policy committee presented a report on 2026 mill rates for education support and special levies.

The EPC agenda includes a table showing total revenue by school divisions through education taxes. It shows tax revenue increasing this year between 5.1 per cent in the Seven Oaks School Division to as much as 11.6 or 11.7 per cent in the Pembina Trails or Louis Riel divisions, in comparison with last year.

Manitoba School Boards Association president Alan Campbell said in many communities, divisions are making up for the underfunding under the previous Progressive Conservative government.

But still, taxes keep rising, and Campbell said trustees would be the first to say it’s not sustainable.

“Our only other source of revenue is indeed the provincial government, and we have offered that message to Minister Sala and [Education] Minister Schmidt very plainly, that the provincial government needs to do more to fund education in this province.”

The NDP has teased that some help for homeowners will be announced in the provincial budget next week.

“We’re going to show Manitobans the next steps we’re going to take to lower your costs,” Sala said during question period.

Premier Wab Kinew has also hinted his government might ask the top one per cent of Manitobans to shoulder a greater share of the education property taxes being collected.