Vancouver mayor wants to limit property tax increases, but questions remain over implications

Property taxes always seem to go up, but there's a discussion in Vancouver about just how far next year's increase should go.

On Wednesday, city staff presented an outlook for 2025-2029, which assumed a roughly seven per cent annual property tax increase during that period.

But Mayor Ken Sim has asked staff to report back later this year with a draft budget examining whether property taxes could be hiked just 5.5 per cent instead.

"We have to make a stand," Sim said during a council meeting on Wednesday. "We have to get the rate of property tax increases to a sustainable level."

But how the city can find a way to tax at a lower rate is very much an open question – with staff characterizing annual seven per cent increases as a "status quo" situation that would simply maintain city service levels at existing levels.

"I don't know because we haven't really gone through that process yet," said Colin Knight, the city’s director of finance when asked by OneCity city Coun. Christine Boyle about which services could be affected by limiting a tax increase to 5.5 per cent.

"I don't think I can answer that specifically. That would be something that we would take direction from council and work through our city departments and pull together that information."

One possible solution, according to Sim, is his proposal to sell naming rights to parks and other city assets, which he referenced during the council meeting.

"We're coming to the table with solutions and to help our team members," Sim said. "When we look at other ways of generating revenue, I would hope that every on council would have an open mind, where we're trying to solve things versus getting very positional."

More information on what this might mean for city services is expected when staff provides a draft budget later in the year, which is expected to include multiple scenarios based on the amount of property tax increase.