If you believe in the principle of publicly funded Catholic Education in Ontario, and wish to vote for Catholic School Board Trustees in any municipal election, you may want to ensure that your property taxes are being directed to the appropriate school board.
Although the government determines the revenue each school board receives through a funding formula known as the Grants for Student Needs, property taxes continue to support the education system. Under the present system, the provincial government sets uniform tax rates for residential and business property taxes, and municipalities collect the taxes for the school boards in their communities on behalf of the province. The Ministry of Education, using the funding formula, determines each board’s overall allocation of grants, and the province provides additional funding up to the level set by the funding formula.
Because of this provincial “top-up”, designation of school support at this time is no longer the critical factor in determining the amount of money a school board receives in any given year. It remains, however, an extremely important issue for Catholic boards in particular.
An accurate list of school support across Ontario, as captured in the assessment roll/voters’ list is very important for a number of reasons including;
- Only those who direct their school support to a school board can vote for trustees on that board, or run to be a trustee there;
- The number of trustees on any board can be increased if the number of supporters in the board’s jurisdiction increases to a certain number;
- Accurate school support designation gives a Catholic parent the legal right to send their child to a Catholic school and French-language rights holders the legal right to send their child to a French-language school;
- The assessment roll is used as evidence of where Catholic, public and French language supporters live, and therefore where each system’s schools should be built.
The voters’ list/assessment roll is an important public indicator of the distribution of support for each of the publicly funded systems in the province.
To learn more about how your property taxes are directed, or to direct your support online, visit the
Municipal Property Assessment Corporation website.
Please check with the Board's assessment department to be sure that your taxes support the Catholic Education system. Contact us at (519) 253-2481 ext. 1218
Application for Direction of School Support form
Separate School Assessment Lease form