Classroom dollars at risk in Hamilton’s stormwater debate
Coun. Jeff Beattie — a former public board trustee — asked for city staff to consider exemptions to the stormwater fee for both the city’s public and Catholic school boards.
School boards push back against ‘rain tax,’ saying nearly $800K a year for the public board alone isn’t feasible
Hamilton’s new stormwater fee could cost the public school board nearly $800,000 per year — prompting calls for an exemption for local school properties from the so-called “rain tax.”
City staff told the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board liaison committee Thursday that the public board’s 93 schools could see an estimated $788,000 annual bill after the contentious stormwater fee is implemented.
That bill could be cut in half, to $394,000, if schools are able to apply a stormwater incentive program credit, noted Charlene McKay, the city’s manager of compliance and regulations.
But Coun. Jeff Beattie, a former public board trustee, argued in an interview that school boards are funded for very specific things — stormwater fees not among them. He warned the board would have to find that money somewhere, potentially affecting classroom resources.
As a result, the liaison committee passed a motion by Beattie asking city staff to look at the impact of providing a full exemption to both the public and Catholic school boards.
“Essentially, not taking money out of the classroom to put down the drain,” he said.
The stormwater fees, due to be introduced next year, could also have a $448,000 impact on the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, although that estimated cost does not factor in credits or reduced sewer bills, said Clayton Pereira, the city’s director of revenue services, via email.
Approved in 2023, Hamilton’s stormwater fee program — derided by critics as a “rain tax” — is meant to help the city respond to rising sewer repair and flooding costs linked to climate change. It gives stormwater infrastructure its own funding source, separated from sewer and water rates.
Hamilton followed other municipalities in adopting the fees, including Mississauga, Ottawa and Brampton. Staff told the committee the fees are expected to be implemented in July 2026.
McKay told the committee schools could add stormwater sustainability to their curriculum and receive a 15 per cent fee credit — but to get a 50 per cent credit, schools would have to employ other methods, including rain gardens, bioswales or stormwater ponds.
Those methods vary in cost — with a rain garden carrying a roughly $6,000 price tag just for plants and soil — but McKay noted the return on investment “is quite high” and can be seen “every year” in reduced stormwater fees.
But at that price, installing a rain garden at each of the board’s 93 schools would cost more than $500,000, said Ward 3 trustee and public board chair Maria Felix Miller. She added the installation would rely on staff and parents — and at schools where similar gardens have been installed, those projects have taken multiple years.
“It is not necessarily feasible, and certainly not feasible overnight,” she told the committee.
McKay told the committee some municipalities with stormwater fees have provided full exemptions to school boards, but that is the exception rather than the rule.
In an interview, Miller said the public board would like to receive a full exemption to the fee.
She said while the fee to the board could theoretically be “whittled down” to $394,000, that is still an annual expense for which the board does not receive funding. The board does have a contingency fund, but it is meant for emergencies and not to pay an ongoing tax, Miller added.
Trustee Todd White said the public board worked for a number of years to create a unique reciprocal relationship with the city that sees the board not charge the city fees to use its facilities.
The stormwater fee could upset that relationship, he said.