Vancouver to draw $5.7M from reserve funds to offset police budget decision

A property tax hike was on the table but Vancouver city councillors instead voted to take millions from the reserve fund to offset the costs of restoring the Vancouver Police Department’s budget.

The VPD won its appeal over a 2020 decision by council to not increase police funding in the 2021 budget. The province’s Director of Police Service sided with police in March, and ordered the city to pay the $5.7 million for a retroactive budget increase.

A report before council Tuesday outlined some suggestions on how to do that, without going into deficit, and included a possible increase to property taxes.

“Because the final 2022 property tax rates have not yet been finalized, Council also has the option to amend the 2022 operating budget and fund the expenditure by increasing the property tax levy,” the report read.

“As public safety costs are funded almost exclusively from property taxes, an increase to the VPD budget of $5.7 million would be equivalent to a property tax increase of approximately 0.6% or a corresponding reduction to other budgeted expenses.”

The City of Vancouver previously approved the property tax rate to sit at 6.35 per cent for 2022, a higher-than-proposed hike as a result of several factors including climate initiatives and police and public safety costs.

Several councillors took issue that a large percentage of the hike in revenue generated by property taxes, nearly 50 per cent, goes towards policing costs.

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Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart says the decision from the province “provides quite a lot of clarification” about the role of municipalities, calling it “the extraordinary removal of local democracy from the oversight of police.”

He also introduced an amendment to include details on the property tax notice to explain to the public that “we spend over a million dollars a day on policing and that we have essentially ..no control over increases to that,” he said. Other councillors agreed that alternative funding options under the umbrella of public safety should be considered as an alternative to funding officers.

“So the province has removed our discretion over budgets essentially and they’ve also they decide who sits on the Police Board. So this clarification is very important. And so I think this needs the taxpayers of the city need to see this.”

But Stewart struck down Councillor Jean Swanson’s motion to reject the decision outright over concerns fighting against it again would land the city in court.

“I can’t vote for this because what I don’t want to do is get embroiled in a fight with the province. I think that they’ve made their decisions clear. I have spoken with the Director of Police Services as well as the Solicitor General. I don’t see that there’s any way there is no appeal mechanism for this to happen,” Stewart said.

Reserve funds already low

The report outlines that the current amount in reserve sits at about $33 million, which is lower than the target level of between $100 million and $200 million. The reserve fund is set up for unanticipated emergencies, and the report outlines that permanent funding will need to be found for the 2023 budget.

Several people spoke to council about their criticism of police receiving more funding, including several local charities which said they could use the $5 million for better purposes.

Councillor Melissa de Genova recused herself from the vote.