Two Yellowknife school boards are asking the city for a greater share of property taxes to help cover their costs.
Representatives of Yellowknife Education District No 1 and Yellowknife Catholic Schools attended a Monday meeting where councillors discussed mill rates for 2025.
The mill rate is the rate at which annual tax is payable for each $1,000 of assessed property value. Different classes of property – including residential, multi-residential and commercial properties – have different mill rates.
In letters sent last month, the school boards asked the city to increase mill rates to make up for funding shortfalls.
YK1 is asking for around $8 million in tax revenues in 2025-26, a $905,000 increase on the sum it received in 2024-25. The Catholic school board is requesting about $5 million, a $400,000 increase.
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Lisa Vass, representing YK1, said the NWT government provides about 80 percent of school board funding while the remaining 20 percent comes from the city, residents and businesses.
She said part of the problem is that the education mill rate hasn’t been increased in nearly 20 years.
“Heating, electricity, those are all going up. But our budget hasn’t gone up in years on that one,” she said.
“There’s a mixture of pressures on the school boards.”
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City staff have recommended that council approve an 11.49-percent increase in the education mill rate in order to meet the amounts requested by the school boards.
While city councillors approved a 6.02-percent property tax increase for 2025, city manager Stephen Van Dine said a slight increase in the city’s assessment base has dropped that increase to 5.86 percent. He said the new, lower increase will apply to all ratepayers.
Monday was also the first meeting of city councillors attended by newly appointed councillor Rob Foote.
