Renée Kuchapski says she pays twice as much in taxes to live in rural Saskatchewan as her friend pays in rural Ontario.
The resident of the Rural Municipality of Corman Park, who splits her time between her Saskatchewan home and Brock University in Ontario, said her taxes jumped to $5,000 in 2002 from $3,800 in 2000.
Kuchapski said property taxes fund 59 percent of education in Saskatchewan, more than double the national average. Three-quarters of individual landowners’ property tax in Saskatoon goes to fund education, she said.
“I would like to know how the money is being spent,” she told delegates at a national congress on rural education in Saskatoon April 3.
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Saskatchewan has the highest school tax rate in Canada, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
For that kind of money, Kuchapski said people have a right to ask what boards are doing to keep costs down and how well they are doing that job.
Kuchapski suggested boards need to improve ways to disclose information like curriculum guidelines or show how they operate through organizational flow charts. They also need to increase opportunities for redress through tax appeals.
Amalgamation is a reality everywhere, she noted. She cited the example of the Toronto school board that manages more students than are found in all of Saskatchewan and raised questions about the need for so many school divisions in this province.
People are feeling the tax burden is disproportionately high, said Kuchapski.
“I’m OK with it but not if no one else is trying to reduce costs.”
