Township in Southwest Ontario, inside Lambton County
St Clair property tax rate, 2025
1.35%of the assessed value on your MPAC notice, each year
$6,739 a yearon a $500,000 home, or about $562 a month
Lower than 58% of the 414 Ontario municipalities
Each dot is one municipality, placed by its newest filed rate. Further right is higher.
St Clair 1.35%
Middle 1.40%10 more, up to 6.85%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
St Clair
Middle 1.40%10 more, to 6.85%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
Lowest fifth
Low
Middle fifth
High
Highest fifth
St Clair
St Clair in short
$6,739 a year on a $500,000 home: $3,355 to St Clair council, $2,620 to Lambton County and $765 to schools.
Up 0.20 points since 2019, or $988 a year more on a $500,000 home.
Rent $970 a month, home value $400,000 in the 2021 Census, against an Ontario middle of $980 and $400,000.
2025 is the newest year St Clair has filed. Every municipality on this site is compared at its
newest filed rate: 283 have filed 2025, and the other 131 are at their newest year, mostly 2024.
Who sets the rate
Three bodies set St Clair's rate: St Clair council at 0.67%, Lambton County at
0.52%, and the Province of Ontario for schools. The county portion is
39% of the bill, set by a council you vote for separately.
$3,355$2,620$765
Portion
Rate
On $500,000
Share
MunicipalSt Clair council
0.67%
$3,355
50%
County or regionLambton County
0.52%
$2,620
39%
EducationProvince of Ontario
0.15%
$765
11%
Total
1.35%
$6,739
100%
Each rate is rounded to two decimals, so the parts can add up to 0.01 off the total.
How the rate has changed, 2019–2025
Up every year since 2020. Since 2019 the total rate here has risen by 0.20 percentage points, from 1.15% to 1.35%. On a $500,000 home that is $988 a year more than in 2019.
20191.15%$5,751
20201.15%$5,726
20211.16%$5,805
20221.18%$5,886
20231.23%$6,147
20241.30%$6,519
2025*1.35%$6,739
Total residential rate, with the tax on a $500,000 home underneath. *2025 is St Clair's own filing; 104 municipalities have not filed 2025 yet.Each part of the rate, year by year
Over the same years the residential assessment base moved from $1,443M to
$1,572M, and the residential levy collected went from $16M
to $21M. A rate rising while the base also grows means the budget grew faster than
property values; a rate falling while the base grows usually means the opposite. Assessment is the figure on the
MPAC notice, still based on 2016 values province-wide.
Year
Municipal
County or region
Education
Total
Change
On $500,000
2019
0.55%
0.44%
0.16%
1.15%
—
$5,751
2020
0.56%
0.44%
0.15%
1.15%
−0.01 pts
$5,726
2021
0.56%
0.44%
0.15%
1.16%
+0.02 pts
$5,805
2022
0.57%
0.46%
0.15%
1.18%
+0.02 pts
$5,886
2023
0.60%
0.47%
0.15%
1.23%
+0.05 pts
$6,147
2024
0.65%
0.50%
0.15%
1.30%
+0.07 pts
$6,519
2025*
0.67%
0.52%
0.15%
1.35%
+0.04 pts
$6,739
Why are St Clair property taxes so high?
They are not, measured against the rest of the province. St Clair's total rate of 1.35% sits close to the Ontario middle of 1.40%: lower than 58% of 414 municipalities. A bill can still feel high when the assessment is high, because the rate is only half of the calculation.
Home values
Homes here are assessed at $251,882 per household, 8% less than the middle ($274,250).
Spending
It spends $6,706 per household, 55% more than the middle ($4,313). It spends more on water and wastewater (+$858), parks and recreation (+$724) and planning and development (+$288), and less on libraries (−$75) and running the municipality (−$58).
← Less than the middleMore than the middle →
Water and wastewater+$858
Parks and recreation+$724
Planning and development+$288
Libraries−$75
Running the municipality−$58
More on why
Who gets the money
Of that rate, 0.52% goes to Lambton County and 0.15% to schools; 0.67% is set by St Clair itself.
Across Ontario
Across the 241 towns inside a county or region, the tax rate follows home values much more closely than spending: where homes are worth more, rates tend to be lower (rank correlation −0.70 for home values, 0.45 for spending). A pattern, not proof of cause.
What it costs to live in St Clair
Cost
St Clair
Ontario middle
Rent, per monthmedian, 2021
$970Lower than 50% of 354
$980
Home valueowners’ estimate, 2021
$400,000The same as the middle
$400,000
Property tax on a $500,000 assessment2025
$6,739Lower than 58% of 414
$6,992
Households spending 30% or more on housingshare of income, 2021
10.1%Lower than 87% of 400
15.0%
Household incomemedian, before tax, 2020
$98,000Higher than 75% of 405
$84,000
Ontario has no official cost-of-living index for single towns. Statistics Canada’s consumer price index covers only Toronto, Ottawa and Thunder Bay here, and it measures change over time, not the gap between places. These are the costs published for each municipality: what renters paid and owners estimated in the 2021 Census, not today’s asking rents or sale prices.
Places like St Clair
The 5 places closest to St Clair on total tax rate, assessment / household, spending per household, population, 5-year growth, people per household, among towns inside a county or region.
Residential is one of 12 classes St Clair reported this year. The tax ratio is the multiple
applied to the residential rate: a ratio of 1.7 on multi-residential means an apartment building pays 1.7×
what a house pays on the same assessed value.
Class
Tax ratio
Municipal
County or region
Education
Total
Large Industrial
3.003476
2.02%
1.57%
0.88%
4.47%
Shopping Centre
2.083516
1.40%
1.09%
0.88%
3.37%
Industrial
2.047572
1.37%
1.07%
0.88%
3.33%
Commercial
1.627101
1.09%
0.85%
0.88%
2.82%
Office Building
1.535798
1.03%
0.80%
0.88%
2.72%
Multi-Residential
2
1.34%
1.05%
0.15%
2.54%
Pipeline
1.342355
0.90%
0.70%
0.88%
2.48%
Parking Lot
1.091161
0.73%
0.57%
0.68%
1.98%
New Multi-Residential
1
0.67%
0.52%
0.15%
1.35%
Residential
1
0.67%
0.52%
0.15%
1.35%
Managed Forest
0.25
0.17%
0.13%
0.04%
0.34%
Farmland
0.226
0.15%
0.12%
0.04%
0.31%
Sources and method
Tax rates and spending come from the Financial Information Return that St Clair files with the Province of Ontario; population, rents and home values from Statistics Canada.
Every source, the method and the limits
Tax rates
Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 22 GPL — Municipal and School Board Taxation. Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Municipal Act s.294(1). Years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025; retrieved 2026-10-11.
Download the file
Spending, households
Financial Information Return Schedule 40 (consolidated expenses by function) and Schedule 02 (households and population).
Population
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 17-10-0155-01, Population estimates, July 1, by census subdivision. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Rent, home value, income
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Statistics Canada Open Licence. Rent is the median monthly shelter cost of renter households (rent plus any utilities they pay).
The Ontario middle is the median across the municipalities with a published figure.
Method
Dollar figures are the rate times $500,000 of assessed value. Standing compares St Clair's 2025 total
residential rate with all 414 Ontario municipalities: 238 of the other 413 charge more. The five colours split them into fifths.
Municipality ID
MunID 38002, MAH 54614
Limits
These are the figures St Clair filed with the province. An individual bill can include area-specific charges and
local improvement levies that a municipality-wide rate does not capture. Reference, not tax advice.