Vancouver city council to examine 2025 budget, including 5.5% property tax increase

Vancouver city council is began to debate its proposed 2025 budget Tuesday, including the staff-proposed 5.5 per cent property tax increase.

The report to go before council explains that staff initially proposed a property tax increase of 7 per cent, however after council told staff to develop a budget with a property tax no higher than 5.5 per cent, staff adjusted the numbers.

The report outlines a number of additional funds, if council approves incorporating them into the budget, which could see property taxes dip even further to a possible 3.9 per cent instead.

The City of Vancouver’s property tax this year came in at 7.5 per cent.

After debate began, councillors shared their thoughts with CityNews.

“My word of the day is affordability — as in how we can make the City of Vancouver taxpayers pay less and have more affordable life here in the city,” said Coun. Mike Klassen.

“On the whole, we know it’s a tough time for Vancouverites and Canadians and we recognize that and certainly I think we are delivering good value for service,” said Coun. Pete Fry.

Addressing the proposed property tax changes, Fry said, “We haven’t seen this before so I have some questions about where this is now coming from, but, potentially, those savings could be potentially eaten up with the additional spends.”

In total, the 2025 budget proposal is $2.4 billion, including more than $450 million for the Vancouver Police Department.

During a recent Vancouver Police Board meeting, Chief Adam Palmer said the proposed budget for his department is not an “adequate increase” to meet the demands the department is facing.

Palmer pointed to the $1.1 million earmarked for policing protests, highlighting that the city used to average about 500 to 600 protests per year, with it now nudging 1,000 annually.

Council began debating the budget Tuesday, and is expected to continue next week before a final vote.

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—With files from Charles Brockman