Yellowknife school boards request 14-percent tax increase

School boards in Yellowknife are planning to increase taxes by 14 percent this fiscal year to help address funding gaps.

“The reality is that the funding model in the territory does not keep pace with the actual cost of educating students in classrooms and that has come back to haunt us in the long-term,” Graham Arts, assistant superintendent for Yellowknife Education District No 1, told city councillors on Wednesday.

The city collects taxes on behalf of schools and determines tax levies, or how the tax burden is distributed among different types of property owners. The city does not, however, determine the total amount of school taxes it collects, as that is up to the school boards.

According to city documents, YK1 has requested $9,217,287 in tax revenues for 2026-27, an increase of 14 percent compared to 2025-26. Yellowknife Catholic Schools has requested $5,710,998, a 13-percent increase.

The city said this amounts to the average residential taxpayer contributing an extra $368 this year.

Representatives of both school boards told councillors at City Hall on Wednesday they are facing funding challenges meeting the needs of students.

Arts said YK1 has “pretty-much exhausted” reserve funding it has previously used to offset costs. He said the school board has made around $1 million in cuts to “try and keep costs in line.”

He said the territory’s support assistants initiative has helped address the loss of federal Jordan’s Principle funding and allowed YK1 to hire back 45 educational assistants this past school year. But he said the program required schools to first use any surplus funding they had.

Arts said the school board has met with the education minister and spoken with local MLAs about the issue.

Adam Murray, superintendent of Yellowknife Catholic Schools, said costs for transportation, facilities, maintenance, staffing and inclusive schooling are increasing while federal funding has decreased.

Those costs “cannot be ignored and they have to be addressed,” he said.

Murray added the school board has to lay off 14 people next year, representing around $1 million in cuts.

Councillor Rob Warburton said he felt having to increase school taxes in Yellowknife to address funding shortfalls was passing a territorial responsibility on to the city.

“I know it’s happening territorywide, it’s just underfunding by the territorial government on our education system,” he said, “and it’s unfair that it gets burdened on a subset of folks and is not covered by the territorial government.”

The city said the school districts’ request is expected to increase taxes on average by 14 percent for residential properties, eight percent for multi-residential properties, 0.9 percent for commercial and industrial properties (about a $235 increase for the average commercial taxpayer), and six percent for agricultural properties.

The 3.67-percent property tax increase approved by councillors in the 2026 budget is expected to remain unchanged.