City of Vancouver budget brings 6.35% property tax hike
Posted December 7, 2021 10:59 pm.
Last Updated December 7, 2021 11:11 pm.
Vancouver home and business owners will see a 6.35 per cent increase to their property tax bill in 2022, higher than the 5 per cent proposed in the draft budget.
Council passed a $1.747 billion dollar budget Tuesday. Increases in funding for the Vancouver Police Department and Vancouver Fire Rescue Services, as well as a new climate levy for property owners, were key contributors to the higher tax rate. A number of smaller items like hiring more park rangers, increasing street cleaning, hiring a youth worker at Brittania Community Services Centre, and paying the newly-hired auditor general also factored in.
Mayor Kennedy Stewart touted the budget as a win for public safety and the climate, while describing the increased cost to property owners as modest. In a statement, he says the cost will work out to “$6 per month for the median condo, $14 per month for the median detached home, and $26 per month for the median business property.”
Thank you to the Councillors who voted to put the climate emergency & public safety at the centre of our work.
Budget 2022 supports:
Ongoing + equitable climate action
Investments in front line workers
Fighting homelessness & overdoses
Reconciliation#vanpoli pic.twitter.com/fQZjSrsjdK— Kennedy Stewart (@kennedystewart) December 8, 2021
Police budget increased
The city will spend $367 million — just over 20 per cent of the overall budget — on policing. That’s more than what staff proposed in the draft, but in line with what the Vancouver Police Board asked for. In 2021, the budget was just under $341 million.
Stewart says this increase accounts for half of the jump in taxes, and says the budget also includes a request for the auditor general to review the force’s budget.
“The VPD is under significant cost pressures, and as the single largest component of our budget … it’s important we have a third party look into this and provide residents with a better understanding of this spending.”
New climate levy for property owners
The climate levy, which will bring in $9 million next year to be allocated to initiatives that will help the city advance its Climate Emergency Action Plan by funding efforts to reduce emissions, retrofit buildings, and improve infrastructure to support walking and transit. It is described by Stewart as a way to respond to “the climate emergency that has ravaged our region.”
The three Greens on council are supportive of this move, which was announced by the mayor but put forward in an amendment brought by party-member Adriane Carr.
“Climate action is essential for the health and wellbeing of our residents now and children and grandchildren in the future. The climate-caused heat dome last summer caused the deaths of 99 Vancouver residents,” Carr said.
“If we fail to fund climate action and resilience now, we will pay for it down the road. Over the last year, we’ve seen the devastating effects of climate change all around us in our province. Unfortunately, things are only going to get worse from here unless we take bold action.”
Voting for this budget is a broken promise to Vancouver residents, renters, homeowners, families, young people & small businesses. Mayor & Council promised taxes would 5% max. Now majority have raised taxes whopping 25%+ in 4 years. Don’t know anyone whose income has gone up 25%.
— Sarah Kirby-Yung 楊瑞蘭 (@sarahkirby_yung) December 8, 2021
The move was opposed by Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung who says it was brought forward at the last minute, without enough time for councillors or residents to understand how much it will cost taxpayers.
Kirby-Yung says property owners shouldn’t have been hit with an increase beyond the proposed 5 per cent, slamming the final budget as a “broken promise” to people in the city, out of step with what her constituents have told her they want, and an added burden on people still struggling with the economic impacts of the pandemic.
“They wanted the money spent on things like core services, they feel that the quality of life in the city is declining, in terms of taking care of our streets and our sidewalks, cleanliness, taking care of our amenities, like our community centres, making sure that we have sufficient public safety resources for fire and police. That’s what we heard. That’s what’s important to them — that and housing affordability. What council passed today does not align with what the residents of Vancouver told us that they wanted,” she says.
“We have some of the most expensive housing in the country and we do not have some of the highest income so our affordability gap is really widening and council just made it much more difficult for renters, for homeowners, for families, for young people and for small businesses in the city.”
‘Those weren’t both promises we could keep’
OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle says difficult decisions had to be made. She voted against the increase to the police budget, but is in favour of the climate levy.
“What’s very clear is that the longer we delay action on climate change, the more it will cost us. I supported the climate levy. When Council received an update on our climate emergency action plan, we were told that we’re not on track to meet our goals and the major reason why is because of a gap between the goals and actions that this council has approved and the funding available to meet them,” she explains.
“This decision around the climate action levy helps to cover some of that and it will go towards investments that not only reduce our carbon emissions, but also improve quality of life for residents.”
In addition to protecting current public services, in #VanBudget2022 I’m advocating for new investments that improve access to city services and that help more people live with dignity. pic.twitter.com/OcfA5Rezb4
— Christine Boyle (@christineeboyle) November 30, 2021
Boyle says council was in a bind, given that they asked for a budget with a 5 per cent tax increase, but also committed throughout the year to a number of things that ultimately need to be paid for.
“We have approved items, supported items that added up to a higher than 5 per cent tax increase. Those weren’t both promises that we could keep,” she says.
“I was very glad to see us keep our promises on so many fronts to actually fund the work that we’ve committed to residents that we support doing.”
RELATED: Vancouver homeowners pay among lowest property tax rates, economist argues, amid rate hike proposal
Green Coun. Pete Fry said in a statement that his party tried to prioritize safety, equity, and climate action throughout budget talks. However, he also notes there is a lot of financial pressure on the city and residents.
“The city was hit hard by COVID. The budget and our residents are feeling mounting pressures,” he said. “On top of that, this Council has had to make up for chronic underfunding of core services by previous administrations, and senior governments have increasingly downloaded costs such as mental health and homelessness onto municipalities. Those shortfalls became manifest especially as a result of the pandemic. We had difficult decisions to make.”