Trail Talking

It’s certainly been a busy spring session in the Manitoba Legislature. The NDP recently decided to delay the passage of Bill 71, The Education Property Tax Reduction Act, which would allow Manitobans to receive their education property tax rebate cheques and provide tax relief. The NDP have been using procedural delays in the Legislature to stall this bill, but have yet to tell Manitobans if they will support it or deny this tax relief measure. Manitobans deserve to know where the NDP stands on this issue.

The NDP’s own MLA and Education Critic Mark Wasyliw told the Winnipeg Free Press in 2016 when he was Chair of the Winnipeg School Division that it is a ‘regressive tax’ and that Manitoba needs to find another way to fund schools. It’s my hope that the NDP Caucus will decide to support the elimination of the Education Property Tax, vote in favour of Bill 71, and stop the delay tactics and start delivering tax relief to Manitobans.

This new legislation would allow nearly $250 million in education property tax rebates to be provided to Manitoba property owners this spring. The province would provide a 50 per cent education property tax rebate directly to residential and farm property owners over the next two years (25 per cent this year and 25 per cent next year) and a 10 per cent rebate on other properties. The average rebate to property owners would be about $1,140 per property over the next two years. Rebates over the next few years will lead to the eventual elimination and removal of the education property tax, providing Manitoba property owners with much-needed tax relief.

In other news, our government is advancing public education by investing in important capital projects to improve and modernize new and existing capital school infrastructure. As part of Budget 2021, the Manitoba government is providing an additional $100 million for a total of over $260 million in kindergarten to Grade 12 school capital investments. I am pleased to announce that École Lorette Immersion and École Pointe-des-Chênes are just some of the many schools that will be receiving funding through this initiative.