Vancouver council approved a motion by Mayor Ken Sim on Wednesday to direct staff to prepare a zero per cent property tax increase in the next budget.

Sim’s motion directs staff to find savings, while prioritizing core city services and maintaining community grants, library and community centre services.

However, delivering a zero per cent increase would require cutting about $100 million from the city’s operating budget.

“The residents, business owners, people that live in the City of Vancouver, they’re going through affordability challenges and we have to do our part to make sure that we help the residents,” Sim told Global News.

“And so there’s no turning back here. We leave it up to our city manager to find those operational efficiencies.”

Opposition councillors have criticized

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