Vancouver Mayor's Budget Task Force recommends selling naming rights to increase cash flow

A volunteer-run group tasked by the City of Vancouver to analyze its budget is suggesting the city generate revenue from city assets through selling naming rights and running sponsorship campaigns.

The recommendation is one of 17 listed in a report published by the Mayor’s Budget Task Force.

The task force was created in April 2023, with the goal of reviewing “the city’s operational and capital budgets, operational structures and processes, and policies,” according to the report.

Randy Pratt, the chair of the task force, said naming rights could result in millions of dollars in revenue for the city. He pointed to hospitals and ice rinks as possible partnerships.

“Our ice rinks are a mess,” he said. “They’re in total disarray. That would be an opportunity to partner with industry to get them to pay the maintenance and capital part and still get all the ice sheets you need.”

Pratt said the city is currently taking inventory of its assets to see what the possibility for naming and sponsorship opportunities would look like.

ABC Coun. Brian Montague said he’s in support of the idea.

“I think it’s an option we need to really look at,” he said.

DIVESTING NON-CORE ASSETS 

Other streams of revenue the task force identified consisted of leasing empty office space, decreasing employee absentee rates, and divesting in non-core assets – a recommendation some councillors, like Green Party Coun. Pete Fry, described as “ambiguous.”

“Empty office space, for sure,” Fry said. “More efficiency in how we run our properties and how we manage them, for sure. Naming rights starts to get into a gray area and then selling off public assets is a hard no for me,” he said.

The selling of non-core assets, like community centres, drew pushback from the task force’s chair. Pratt reiterated there was no discussion about the selling of those assets during the past few months of meetings.

A committee will now work on implementing the report’s recommendations and ensuring the public can provide feedback.