Saskatchewan’s budget will include cut to education property taxes

The Saskatchewan spring budget is more than a week away, but at the annual SARM convention on Tuesday, the province gave the audience a taste of what they can expect in terms of taxes.

Government Relations Minister Eric Schmalz said the province will reduce the education property tax mill rate for all property classes, mentioning that 2025 was a property assessment year.

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“Lowering mill rates will help further address affordability concerns by decreasing the effect of higher property assessment values for all provincial ratepayers,” Schmalz said.

The change will result in $100 million in property tax savings over the year, meaning $100 million less will be taken in for education than would have been.

Resource property will see the largest decrease to its rate.

The decreases for the following classes are:

• Resource: from 9.88 in 2024 to 7.49 in 2025
• Agricultural: from 1.42 in 2024 to 1.07 in 2025
• Residential: from 4.54 in 2024 to 4.27 in 2025
• Commercial/Industrial: from 6.86 in 2024 to 6.37 in 2025.

This cut comes a week after the arbitrator came back to advise classroom size and complexity be included in the teachers’ contract with the province.

For the last several years, school divisions have spoken out, saying funding hasn’t kept up with division and student needs.

The provincial budget is expected to be released on March 18. In the 2024-25 budget, school divisions were down to receive $2.2 billion in operating funding, marked as record funding.

The provincial government declined to say whether education funding will be affected before the budget is released next week.

Schmalz also announced the amount for municipal revenue sharing on Tuesday. He said it will be $361.8 million in 2025/26, which is a record amount and a $21.5 million increase from last year.

“We recognize that these are challenging and unprecedented times and we fully understand your difficulties and appreciate every little bit helps,” Schmalz told the SARM crowd.

President of Sask. School Boards Association ‘surprised’

The Saskatchewan School Board Association was not made aware of Tuesday’s announcement, but president Shawn Davidson acknowledged that it does not have authority over education property tax.

That’s the government’s role.

“As long as the government has identified enough revenue to adequately fund education we’ll be OK,” he said.

Revenue to replace the funding is completely out of  school division hands, according to Davidson.

“In light of the cost drivers that we’re currently facing around enrollment growth and around the cost of the provincial collective agreement, if this results in a reduction for funding to the education sector, school divisions are going to be in a very, very difficult place,” he said.

Davidson said the association will be watching the provincial budget next Wednesday very closely to figure out what funding looks like for the provincial education sector.

“If there’s a reduction that falls short of addressing our cost drivers, then we’re going to be in a place where we have to make some tough decisions again,” he said. “We’ve had to make a lot of tough decisions in the last seven or eight years.”

— with files by 980 CJME’s Nicole Garn

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