COLLEEN HARDWICK’S PUSH FOR INDEPENDENT AUDITOR GENERAL A SIGN OF HOW TEAM WOULD HANDLE FINANCES AND CITY ASSETS

Transparency and accountability would be the watchwords under a TEAM for a Livable Vancouver council

VANCOUVER (Feb. 9, 2026) -- Former TEAM councillor Colleen Hardwick says she’s gratified that her push to establish an independent auditor general’s office when she was on council is now proving to be a valuable protection for Vancouver residents.

A new report on the City’s land sales and exchanges shows a shocking lack of respect for public assets that would never have come to light without the work of Auditor General Mike Macdonell, she says. 

While there may have been no evidence of potential fraud, the report found that taxpayers were certainly the million-dollar losers when the City went up against developers, Hardwick says. Anyone reading the report would have to wonder who was protecting the public interest.

Hardwick’s successful 2019 motion for an independent auditor general’s office and its creation in 2021 was her achievement of most important benefit during her 2018-2022 term on Vancouver City Council.

Hardwick, who will be seeking TEAM’s mayoral nomination in this fall’s civic election, says her determination to get the oversight office in place during her term is a sign of TEAM’s approach to city finances and land assets.

For example, Macdonell’s audit of recreation facility asset management, undertaken at the request of the Park Board and released last September, found that the City did not have a Council-approved strategy or formalized framework for managing the facilities for whose maintenance it is responsible.

Transparency and accountability are key, and TEAM believes the public interest comes first when our precious lands are sold or exchanged. A TEAM council would also ensure that all Macdonell’s recommendations for improving the system and protecting the public interest are carried out.

Macdonell’s audit of the City’s land sales and exchanges over an eight-year period found no evidence of potential fraud. But it found weaknesses in policy, process and reporting to council that meant “the City could not demonstrate that it maximized the value of its land sales and exchanges.”

In just one transaction, involving the sale of 601 Beach Cres., Council wasn’t told about a staff calculation error that understated a deferred payment owed to the City by nearly $13 million. Nor was Council told that the City had agreed to pay a $12.1-million community amenity contribution that was legally the buyer’s responsibility. As the report states, this raises questions about how concessions with significant financial implications for the City are made and provided to Council.

A TEAM council would capitalize on “service-delivery proposals and spending efficiencies identified by the Vancouver Auditor General,” as it campaigned on doing in 2022.