The Portage and District Chamber of Commerce is happy about Premier Brian Pallister's commitment to phase out education tax on farmland and property.

President Guy Moffat says it's something they have been asking for.

"We're happy because it actually shows that the advocacy that we do for the businesses in Portage la Prairie is taking hold and we're having something accomplished, especially, something that's taken so many years," says Moffat.

He says they feel the resolution they sent to the province requesting they modernize K-12 education funding back in 2016 played a role in the decision. The resolution was renewed by the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce in May of this year.

"I had a conversation with Ian Wishart (MLA for Portage la Prairie) last week, and he's going to be working on this particular project," says Moffat. "He's explaining to me that it's a bit of a big project. There's lots of complexities to it, but it's going to be nice to be able to move Manitoba into something that's going to be a little bit more fair across the landscape as far as funding our public education goes."

Moffat says the education tax on farmland has an effect in our region.

"It was a really heavy financial burden for some of our local farmers, especially because of their land values," says Moffat. "This is just going to spread out the taxation for school tax a little more evenly throughout the province and it's going to be a really great thing for our local producers."