City proposes ‘high school land levy’ for all new homes starting in January

Saskatoon city administration is proposing a new “high school land levy” on all new homes purchased starting in January 2025.

The proposed new levy, according to a report by Andrew Roberts, director of recreation and community development, is needed because the City of Saskatoon doesn’t currently have enough reserve land to allocate for new high schools and not enough money to buy new land either.

According to Roberts’ report, “administration is proposing the establishment of a new city-wide high school land levy to assist with the acquisition of land for the new high school site in the Holmwood Sector and all future high school sites.

“In addition, funding is required to purchase land for the East Side Leisure Centre in the Holmwood Sector.”

That’s not sitting well with Nicole Burgess, CEO of the Saskatoon Region Home Builders’ Association.

“We were quite concerned when we first heard about this new proposed levy around the end of April as it is a direct hit on affordability and one of those extra costs that will essentially get passed on to a homeowner, ” she said.

Burgess has also penned a letter to Saskatoon City Council and will make a presentation at Wednesday’s meeting.

The cost the city is proposing at this point is $175.80 per front metre, which she said amounts to about $2,000 that would be added to the price of each new home.

It’s yet another cost that hits people in their wallets during a national housing crisis she said, and at a time when buying a new home has become more and more difficult for many.

“Saskatoon actually currently has the second highest development levies for single-family lots anywhere across Canada, second only to Surrey, (B.C.),” she added, indicating the information came from a recent survey completed by the home builders’ association.

Burgess also questioned whether a new levy, like the one the city is proposing, is even allowed.

“We quickly got a lot of back information and have really been asking the city and the province for clarification on how this is even permitted in the Planning and Development Act,” she said.

The Act, she said, dictates what the city is allowed to charge.

The proposal has come about so quickly because the province intends to build two new high schools in the Holmwood area of Saskatoon, east of Brighton. The school, said Burgess, is about three times the size of other high schools in the city.

“We need high schools. We value high schools. We need green space and we value green space, but we also need affordability. And those things aren’t aligning because we need to provide this massive amount of land for a high school … and it can’t just be on the backs of future home owners,” she added.

Burgess added the provincial government shares in the dilemma because in 2018-19, the provincial government changed legislation so it did not have to provide land for schools, and offloaded the responsibility for the cost to cities.

Council will debate the potential new levy, at Wednesday’s meeting.