The City of North Battleford's new base tax to address needed underground pipe and asphalt replacement has local school divisions concerned. Unlike other municipal taxes, UPAR was implemented with the intent to tax even exempt properties such as school divisions and churches.
Living Sky School Division, Light of Christ Catholic School Division and École Père Mercure of the Conseil Ecole Fransaskoise have all met with the City over the controversial tax and now Living Sky has passed its concern on to local MLAs.
Larry Doke, MLA for Cut Knife-Turtleford, and Randy Weekes, MLA for Biggar, met with the Living Sky board of education last week where the special tax was first on the agenda of things to discuss.
Living Sky board chair Ken Arsenault said they are in touch with the Saskatchewan School Board Association's lawyers for legal clarification. The board wanted the MLAs to be aware they believe the City may be misinterpreting the appropriate legislation or using a loophole that allows them to tax school property. If there is a loophole, said Arsenault, they would like the MLAs to work to change the legislation.
While the school division and the City have a good working relationship, said Arsenault, the board is prepared for a legal challenge and has told the City exactly that.
"We just reiterated we were going to be firm and fast on our position that they were circumventing the legislation as we read it, and they were firm and fast on their position that they were reading the legislation properly," said Arsenault. "We left it at that."
Their impression, however, is the City will be going ahead and the three per cent they plan to charge is just a starting point on the way to five or six per cent.
Since the school officials met with the City, the Living Sky board has received a letter from Mayor Ian Hamilton stating school divisions and otherwise exempt properties will not be charged for the UPAR program in 2015.
However, the mayor added, "we must advise that as the City works through this process, that should underground or street work be required in front of exempt property, that the City will be charging this work as local improvement."
Local improvement levies are something the school division lives with anyway, and they budget for them, but an ongoing annual frontage tax is a concern both philosophically and fiscally.
"This really just seems like taxing twice," said Director of Education Randy Fox. "We operate on taxpayers dollars, and then we would be asked to take those taxpayers dollars and pay them as another tax to the City."
Lonny Darroch, Living Sky's chief financial officer, said a rough estimate of the three per cent tax would mean, potentially, $66,000 per year.
Part of the reason for discussing it with the MLAs, said Fox, was to let them know the issue is out there.
"It almost seems like the City has shifted gears for now, but I wouldn't be surprised that it will come back, and I think it's important government understand … sooner or later it's going to come to that [provincial] level."
Arsenault said if a special tax that includes exempt property can be allowed by legislation it could spread across the entire school division, and perhaps throughout the province.
Vice-chair Ronna Pethick said a similar situation is happening with Prairie Valley School Division and the Town of Pilot Butte.
"I know Prairie Valley have challenged it," said Pethick, who is also the vice-president of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association. "What we fear is that this will go province-wide. If there's success, cities and towns talk, it could go viral."
Pethick said municipal taxation of school property affects students directly.
"Seventy-five per cent of our budget is the fixed cost of staffing, 25 per cent of our total is other educational costs for our students," she said. "I think it's taxing kids, because the money has to come from somewhere and it comes directly out of instruction."
