Vancouver council’s property tax freeze motion leaves more questions than answers

British ColumbiaOn Wednesday, council approved Sim’s motion to direct staff to come forward with a 2026 budget with zero per cent property tax increases, with little detail on the timeline or process staff should take to get there. Unclear what information councillors will have when they vote on draft consolidated budget this yearJustin McElroy · CBC News · Posted: Oct 09, 2025 8:34 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoVancouver Mayor Ken Sim has pushed for a property tax freeze in this year’s budget after tax increases in his first three budgets. (Ben Nelms/CBC)Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim posted on Instagram “NEWS ALERT: Vancouver approves zero percent property tax increase for 2026.”Opposition party COPE wrote “BREAKING: ABC votes unanimously to lock in huge cuts to Vancouver’s public services.”In reality, nothing was approved and no cuts were locked in. On Wednesday, council approved Sim’s motion to direct staff to come forward with a 2026 budget with a zero per cent property tax increase, with little detail on the timeline or process staff should take to get there.“We’ll leave it up to the city manager to come up with a robust budget that accounts for things and we’ll debate that budget when time comes,” said Sim in a press conference after the meeting, when pressed for details.Later in the day, Sim’s office said a “consolidated budget” with broad spending commitments would be presented to council in November for a vote, with a more detailed and official budget put forward in the first quarter of 2026. Vancouver’s operating budget for 2025 is $2.3 billion, and city staff have previously said that a property tax increase of five to six per cent would be needed to maintain existing services, primarily due to aging infrastructure and mandatory wage increases in collective agreements. But that was under former city manager Paul Mochrie, who stepped down with severance and was replaced by Donny van Dyk, who was Delta’s city manager.Sim believes the new city manager will be able to find efficiencies to freeze property taxes without cutting core services – which includes policing, firefighting, and maintaining service levels at libraries and community centres – and contributing to the city’s infrastructure renewal fund.While historically there has often been significant changes between draft budget direction by council and the final product, Sim has pushed his “zero means zero” proposal aggressively.“Unlike other councillors here who want to increase property taxes by six to seven per cent … we want to make life more affordable,” said Sim. “That’s the clearer direction that we have given the city manager, and we look forward to seeing his work.”WATCH | Ken Sim’s motion to push forward a property tax freeze passes Vancouver council:Vancouver city council instructs staff to budget for a 2026 property tax freezeVancouver city councillors have directed city staff to build a budget that will freeze property taxes next year, leading some to worry about service cuts. But as CBC’s Justin McElroy reports, the mayor said he has given a directive to maintain core services, like libraries, community centres, roads, fire and police.Line-item comparisons ‘slow down the process’One of the flash points in Wednesday’s council debate was an amendment by Coun. Pete Fry that asked for a line-item comparison for the November draft budget, showing the detailed differences in spending commitments by department for 2026 compared to 2025. “We’ve left the city manager with direction to achieve zero per cent, but no clear indication of what we’re going to cut,” said Fry. When he campaigned for mayor in 2022, Sim made line-item budgets a centrepiece of his platform, bringing the idea up in multiple events and interviews. “Everyone in the City of Vancouver can see where the City of Vancouver is spending money, and going forward we will continue to do that,” he said in a 2022 interview with CBC News.But van Dyk told council on Wednesday that line-item comparisons could hinder labour relations, and Sim and his ABC colleagues voted against Fry’s amendment.“Giving a line-by-line breakdown right now could slow down the process and hinder us from operating our city,” said Sim.“It would be incredibly reckless if we did not follow the recommendations of the city manager.”The budget is the last one that will take place under Sim before next year’s election, something both he and opposition councillors mentioned during Wednesday’s debate.“This is an election year budget. And I think that it’s actually quite self-serving, and not serving of the public,” said Coun. Rebecca Bligh, who has announced her own mayoral candidacy.But it is an argument that Sim seems eager to have. “We have to debate that budget in council, and then we will let the voters of Vancouver decide in October of 2026 whether or not that was sufficient,” he said. ABOUT THE AUTHORJustin is the Municipal Affairs Reporter for CBC Vancouver, covering local political stories throughout British Columbia.