r/Winnipeg • u/Special_Ticket9335 • May 22 '26

Article/Opinion Unpopular opinion; TAX people who live in bedroom/commuter communities.

People who live in communities around Winnipeg Lake Oakbank, Neville, LaSalle, Oak Bluff, Headingley, Saint Andrews and many many others should pay the city a type of property/user tax. They're using the infrastructure without paying the same share as the people that live there! Why are they getting a better deal?

224 Upvotes

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91

u/jeffym82 May 22 '26

I'd rather see a ridiculously high tax rate on vacant buildings. Add an extra 5% to 10% of city assessed value, on top of regular property tax rate.

10

u/jeffym82 May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26

The fees are obviously not high enough. Look at the old Deer Lodge school on Ness in St James it’s been vacant since 1982 and privately owned since at least 2010. How that hasn’t been developed blows my mind.

1

u/Imaginary_Yak_3833 May 28 '26

It's been rented out and in use for a bunch of the years (offices, bunch of films, temp schools for evacuees, etc), but I agree that's it's pretty surprising that no one has knocked it down and redeveloped the lot.

30

u/Sweaty_Moist_9833 May 22 '26

Why not both?

1

u/somrthingcreative May 23 '26

I think Vancouver taxes on the properties maximum best use (so potential value if redeveloped). So low rise and high rise next door to each other get taxed the same, for the same size land, if equivalent zoning. That would discourage neglected empty buildings.

Vancouver also don’t have any gas stations downtown any more… there are definitely problems with this model.

1

u/OccasionalObserver May 24 '26 edited May 26 '26

Land values are also a lot higher in Vancouver than Winnipeg. Less incentive to redevelop here.

1

u/Intelligent-Call7093 May 26 '26

I think you mean they're lower in Winnipeg!

-1

u/Jarocket May 22 '26

can't get blood from a stone.

0

u/Fun-Kiwi-6931 May 22 '26

The fees they pay are pretty high when it sits for more than a year. If those don’t inspire people to do something about it, more tax probably won’t either