Our Promise to You

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​Livable cities require sustainable and transparent financial models that reflect meaningful input from residents and businesses. TEAM will improve affordability by spending as carefully as you do.

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How We Will Get There

​Administrative efficiency and strong financial management are key to managing the City of Vancouver. Investing your tax dollars in programs and services that focus on core mandates is the best way to provide the highest value to residents and taxpayers. TEAM respects the hard work that goes into the tax dollars you provide to the City, and is committed to:

• Ensuring residents and businesses are getting the value they deserve from their municipal tax dollars and stop spending City funds on what are clearly Provincial or federal responsibilities, while at the same time holding senior governments to account in funding required services 

• Limiting tax increases to what is necessary to maintain municipal services at levels agreed to by the community

• Increasing transparency in the budget process and giving a meaningful voice to residents on spending decisions

• Capitalizing on service-delivery proposals and spending efficiencies identified by Vancouver’s Auditor General

• Improving accountability by having departments develop annual service plans with performance benchmarks and holding management accountable for achieving them

• Focusing on programs and services within the City’s core mandate, both in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, before carefully considering the provision of services outside this mandate 

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​The Issues

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​Vancouver is now one of the most unaffordable cities in the world. While the reasons for this are many, over the last decade, the City has almost doubled its Operating Budget with new expenditures funded through property tax increases well beyond promised inflationary levels, and through increases and additions to service-related fees and charges. Through ongoing increases in property taxes, fees, and service charges, Vancouver residents have been treated as a virtual ATM for funding new expenditures in areas that are often outside the City’s mandate. A budget process focused on the priority initiatives of the current Council has the potential to further exacerbate the tax burden on Vancouver residents and businesses. 

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TEAM Perspective and Action Plan

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​TEAM will address the City’s direct impact on affordability by changing the way the City’s finances and administration are managed and how new services are prioritized. There are a range of services that the City is mandated to provide and that make Vancouver a desirable place to live, work, and play. These are the core services like police and fire, public works and utility services, parks and recreation and library services that citizens depend on. In the recent past, these have often been neglected in favour of a range of new and supplementary services that are outside the city’s core mandate.

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City Hall should approach the provision of such supplementary services with careful deliberation.  Over the last decade these services have grown significantly as the City has been drawn into areas for which it has a questionable mandate, and inadequate or inappropriate funding sources to be taking on. As a result, the City has been constantly raising property taxes and fees beyond the capacity of residents and businesses to absorb them, and continues to search for new revenues to provide the necessary funding.

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TEAM’s approach to managing the City’s administrative and financial affairs will bring more affordability, accountability and transparency to local government.

 

Action Items:

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1. Fully activate the Office of the Auditor General to support Council’s oversight of the efficiency and effectiveness of the City’s administration and finances.;

2. Review the City’s financial structure and policies to ensure they are consistent with best practices and are transparent for citizens;

3. Conduct a thorough review of the Operating and Capital budgets to: (a) document where service costs have increased over the last decade, and why,;(b) determine which services are essential – that is, what the City must do for its taxpayers – and develop benchmarks to measure service cost and value for money spent; and (c) determine which services are supplementary - that is, what the City may do – and to develop purpose statements for each service and ensure there is a direct benefit to the the citizens of Vancouver;

4. Change the budget process to ensure Council (and the public) has the ability to review and set priorities within the operating and capital budgets, including review and approval of departmental budgets, service plans, and performance benchmarks.;

5. Establish a Lobbyist Registry, consistent with federal and Provincial levels, to monitor the influence of industry, labour, and other interest groups, allowing citizens to know who is attempting to influence City decisions; and

6. Continue the Long-Term Financial Sustainability and Municipal Finance Reform initiative, the joint UBCM-Provincial Government review of new options for funding municipal services and relieving the impacts on property taxes.