Vancouver council’s ABC majority has directed city staff to slash millions for what Mayor Ken Sim calls a “historic” municipal budget for next year — but the mayor’s party evaded attempts to get clarity about where the cuts might come.
Council approved a motion Wednesday introduced by Sim calling for a zero per cent property tax increase for 2026, which happens to be — as his political rivals repeatedly noted during the meeting — a municipal election year.
But the four council members from outside the mayor’s ABC Vancouver party railed against what they described as a “reckless” and “chaotic” pivot in the final year of ABC’s mandate after three years of big budget growth and hiring.
In June, city staff reported that maintaining existing service levels would require a roughly seven per