Residents across Ritchot will see the education portion of their property tax bill go up this year. In total, five different school division have catchment areas in Ritchot.

“Collectively, the average increase in mill rate is about nine percent,” says Shane Ray, the RM’s CAO. “The hardest hit here will be Seine River School Division (SRSD) and Louis Riel. It’s going to be an interesting season with the tax increases that some of our residents will see.”

Considering that 2025 was a property assessment year, SRSD’s mill rate will have the effect of a 14.5 percent increase when considering adjusted home valuations. For those living in the Louis Riel catchment area, the effect will be similar at almost 14.4 percent.

With assessment impacts, residents in the Red River Valley catchment area will see a 12.1 percent increase, Hanover a 10.8 percent increase, and Sunrise coming in lowest at 10.2 percent.

While the Sunrise and Louis Riel school divisions have no schools in Ritchot’s boundaries, a handful of Ritchot homes just south of the city’s perimeter fall into their catchments.

Only the Sunrise division provided a letter of explanation to the RM regarding the increase. It’s a response, they said, to inflationary increases. The majority of these higher costs are wage-related.

“Although provincial funding increased by $500,000, the division must still collect an additional $2.7 million from property owners, placing an unfair share of inflationary costs on taxpayers,” reads a statement from Sunrise. “This continues a long-term trend in which the provincial share of education funding has dropped by about 20 percent over the past 20 to 25 years. The only way to reduce the burden on property owners would be to cut resources in schools, an option the board chose not to consider for the 2026–27 school year.”

Taxpayers in Ritchot will be glad to know that the municipal tax mill rate is remaining the same this year as last.

“I commend council on their continued commitment to the residents for keeping taxes at a zero percent increase once again,” Ray told council.