Winnipeg homeowners are down on their luck these days, myself included. Two recent property tax comparisons place Winnipeg squarely in the doghouse as far as affordable housing is concerned.

To make matters worse, the province pulled the rug from under the city by releasing universities from having to pay any property taxes at all. Meaning the difference will have to be made up by local residents and businesses.

That's a tall order for a city that suffers from one of the highest property tax structures in the country, according to the 2001 City of Edmonton Property Tax comparison. Winnipeg ranked 15th out of 18 cities in the survey, just behind Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa for the dishonour of charging the highest property taxes.

Local politicians who were counting on Winnipeggers not to leave the city for greener tax pastures in other cities will have to plug their leaks closer-to-home first.

A 2001 residential property tax and utility charge survey for the Capital region found that Winnipeg is most expensive place to keep a home. Lorette in the RM of Tache stands out as the most affordable place to live in the region, followed by East St. Paul, Stonewall and West St. Paul. Local improvement levies, however, were excluded from the property tax comparison.

The survey - conducted by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation - Click here - shows that competition to keep property taxes low has succeeded in most of the Capital Region communities. Lorette has boasting rights for at least one year until the 2002 survey is released.

Detractors of the survey are quick to point out that commuters to Winnipeg have higher gas bills. Fair enough, but not everyone in the Capital Region commutes to the big city. And besides, the annual $1,500 tax saving in Lorette vis-à-vis Winnipeg should cover the extra travel costs.

Others have noted that Winnipeg taxes are naturally high on account of the myriad of services the city provides. Unfortunately, anyone in striking distance of the city can take advantage of these benefits, which makes it imperative that Winnipeg begins to compete with the outlying competition.

If it were found empirically true that Winnipeggers are subsidizing services used by non-Winnipeggers through their property taxes, than the city should find some user-fee cost recovery system. They should not enlist the support of the province to levy a Capital Region tax, as feared by many municipalities.

Variations in residential property taxes and utility charges among communities should not be taken as an invitation to harmonize costs for ratepayers, known as "tax sharing." The latest capital region report recommends that "the Province will work with municipalities in the Capital Region towards developing tax sharing models that are mutually beneficial."

Rather, the competitive tax structure among communities should be encouraged as a model that inspires municipal governments to curb the property tax burden. The communities that have succeeded in setting competitive property tax rates should be credited for raising the quality of life of its residents.

Communities like Lorette, East St, Paul and Stonewall should use the property tax and utility charge survey results to lure families and businesses to buy or build homes. The low tax and utility charges in these areas will go a long way for homeowners budgeting for total housing costs.

And Winnipeg will have to double its efforts to lower property taxes to a level competitive with the Capital Region communities and also other major Canadian cities.