Vancouver City Council approves 7.5% property tax increase in 2024

Vancouver City Hall (Shutterstock)

Residential and business property owners within Vancouver will still have to contend with a relatively high property tax increase in 2024, but it will be smaller than last year’s double-digit increase.

The 2023 average property tax increase was a historic 10.7% increase. Earlier this year, City of Vancouver staff projected the need for a 9.5% increase in 2024 but brought it down to 7.6% ahead of today’s budget deliberations.

With some amendments during today’s public meeting, Vancouver City Council reduced the 2024 average property tax increase from 0.1% to 7.5% by reducing the budget item line for general government expenses by $537,000.

The 7.5% increase can be sourced to 1% to pick up the pace for infrastructure renewal, such as replacing aging sewers, 3% for the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) and 3.5% for funding across all City services.

According to City staff, this property tax hike translates into a $98 increase for a median strata condominium unit (assessed at $804,000), $168 for a median overall residential unit (assessed at $1.37 million), $260 for a median single-family house (assessed at $2.12 million), and $472 for a median business property (assessed at $1.27 million).

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All 11 members of the elected body — the Mayor and 10 City Councillors — unanimously approved the core budget, but there were varying votes for some amendments that were separately decided, with OneCity councillor Christine Boyle and Green councillors Adriane Carr and Pete Fry opposing amendments driven by the ABC majority.

VPD will see its budget increase by about $32 million, including $2.1 million in extra funding approved through an amendment — below the $36 million requested by the VPD. This includes over $300,000 in funding for the launch of the VPD’s pilot project of deploying patrol officers with body-worn cameras. The VPD’s budget accounts for about 20% of the municipal government’s annual operating budget.

However, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services will see a smaller funding increase than what it requested — $1 million less to reflect the estimated timing and onboarding of new staff.

The budget for the newly created Business and Economy Office under the City Manager’s Office decreased by $0.5 million — half its annual budget of $1 million — as the office will not be operational until mid-2024. This new office is intended to replace the Vancouver Economic Commission, which previously had an annual budget of about $3 million.

The ABC majority approved a $180,000 increase in the budget for the Mayor’s Office, including $80,000 for one new additional full-time equivalent role in the City clerk’s department to provide administrative support and $100,000 for additional discretionary office expenses.

For the first time ever, in 2024, the City of Vancouver’s annual operating budget is projected to reach and exceed $2 billion, totalling $2.2 billion, with much of it driven by natural inflation without any significant new inputs. This milestone follows consecutive year-over-year increases in previous annual budgets since before the pandemic.

“We do recognize that affordability is a challenge in our community, and that this is a transitional budget towards lower property tax increases in the future, while balancing the need to fund the frontline services that Vancouverites rely on every single day. Even though we have more work in the years ahead, a 7.5% property tax increase is strong progress from last year,” said Mayor Ken Sim during the deliberations.

“We’re still in a highly inflationary environment. It is what it is, we played the cards that were dealt… We’re going to work hard on reducing property taxes further in the upcoming years. Our team is committed to streamlining processes and refocusing the City even more going forward.”

Sim also noted that his volunteer-based independent Mayors’ Task Force — comprised of financial experts in the private sector — on analyzing the municipal government’s operations and budgets and identifying efficiencies and cost savings will produce their findings in January 2024. They were originally expected to present their work ahead of the budget deliberations earlier this fall, but this step was delayed.

“I want to stress that we need to continue working finding ways to be more effective with hard-earned taxpayer dollars. This is about continuing that work, but I think we’re not in the right trajectory,” said City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung.

City Councillor Rebecca Bligh added, “We are looking to the region and across the province, and across the country, in recognizing that all municipalities large and small are wrestling with similar increases for various reasons. I think what that reflects is really the need for us to modernize how we are looking at municipal budgets overall. The work is underway by advocating for a more progressive and sustainable approach in recognizing that the property tax is a regressive tax.”

As the Mayor and Vancouver City Council control the Vancouver Park Board’s budget, the approved 2024 operating budget for the parks and recreation system is $168.8 million.

This is a list of the City of Vancouver’s historical average property tax increases:

2023: 10.7%
2022: 6.35%
2021: 5.0%
2020: 7.0%
2019: 4.9%
2018: 4.2%
2017: 3.9%
2016: 2.3%
2015: 2.4%
2014: 1.9%
2013: 1.5%
2012: 2.8%
2011: 2.2%
2010: 2.3%

Separately, the municipality’s 2024 capital budget — for new major construction of infrastructure and facilities — will reach $368 million. The 2024 capital expenditure budget will also reach $782 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 7%.

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