ABC Vancouver is putting its chips on a bet that city hall can make big spending cuts without affecting the services people rely on. It may go down as a stroke of political genius that other municipalities will follow. It may backfire.

“Please tax us more … says no one,” Trevor Ford, the Vancouver mayor’s chief of staff, wrote on his X account on Nov. 9, replying to a tweet from rival political party COPE regarding the 2026 operating budget.

“Reality is that we will achieve a 0% (property tax increase) without any core service cuts.”

If the first part of Ford’s tweet — saying that no one wants higher taxes — was meant as a prediction, it didn’t pan out that way. Three days later, council began a multi-day process of hearing from hundreds of residents arguing that the city should, in f

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