With just over a year before the next municipal election, Vancouver’s mayor is taking an aggressive approach to property tax increases.
The city’s budget outlook, presented at council on Wednesday, forecasts a seven per cent property tax increase.
Staff say that figure would cover existing service levels across the city, while investing in necessary infrastructure upgrades.
But council also approved a motion from Mayor Ken Sim on Wednesday, calling for staff to look at ways to hold property tax hikes to 2.5 per cent or below, including directing staff to game out a zero-per cent scenario, without cutting front line services.
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Sim, who campaigned in part on a platform of improved fiscal management, oversaw a 10.7 per cent property tax hike in his first year.
Since then, he said, council has been able to put a dent in the city’s infrastructure and increase funding to the Vancouver Police Department and Vancouver Fire Rescue Services, while reducing the property tax hike to 3.9 per cent for 2024.
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“We told the public we were going to reset and then bring back fiscal responsibility to the City of Vancouver, and that’s what we’ve done,” he said.
Opposition councillors pushed for staff to also include a transparent list of all potential service cuts under the proposed lower tax scenarios.
That amendment, however, was voted down by council’s ABC Vancouver majority, who called the request redundant.
“The difference between seven per cent and zero per cent … is about $84 million, so the fact that ABC did not support a transparent recording of where those cuts are going to come from leaves me very concerned about what this budget is going to look like in a few months,” independent Coun. Rebecca Bligh said.
“At the end of the day there are very real organizations, very real Vancouverites who are depending on these programs.”
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Sim was asked whether the proposal was related to the fact it was the city’s last budget before voters go back to the polls.
“I think the better question is, what are Vancouverites going through? We are probably going into a recession, we have the threat of tariffs, there is a lot of uncertainty, and there are a lot of people across this great city of ours who are struggling to put a meal on the table,” Sim said.
“It doesn’t matter what year in the process it is.”
Vancouver’s next municipal election will be held in the fall of 2026.
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