Will Mayor Sim Suffer His Largest Political Defeat Yet?

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim keeps digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole.

A few weeks ago, he announced his plan to freeze civic property taxes in the 2026 budget. This from a mayor who delivered whopping increases in property taxes of 10.7% in 2023, 7.28% in 2024, and 3.9% in 2025.

He has swung from one extreme to the other.

The problem with a zero per cent tax increase is that it will inevitably result in deep cuts to many essential services. Mayor Sim’s budget presentation is opaque about what that will mean. Deliberately?

Reading the actual Budget document is not much help. The overview section, which provides some general information, totals just 20 pages. Two appendices outline only planned capital expenditures. Nothing about operations.

And then a full 80 pages are devoted to a detailed report on the City’s pre-budget survey. It’s worth noting that the top priority for both residents and businesses was to “Deliver high-quality City services and infrastructure.” 70% of residents and 62% of businesses supported at least some level of property tax increase, with a majority of both supporting a 5% increase in order to maintain the current service level.

A general analysis – all that is possible right now – shows that of the City’s eighteen departments, only five will receive any increase. Two (Grants, and Development, Building and Licensing) will have their budgets frozen, and the rest will see decreases of up to fifteen percent. Specifically (as illustrated by CBC):

Even this general overview does not present the whole picture. For example, since Ken Sim became mayor, the Police Services budget has increased almost $1.48 million – over 40%. Plus, in 2025 the Police Department has run a $17 million deficit, which the City has also agreed to pay.

On the other hand, the declared Parks and Recreation increase — likely already committed capital spending — runs counter to the fact that the Park Board has been told to reduce its operations budget by $15 million while raising  $8.9 million more in revenue. The Park Board budget response explained that, “The Mayor’s Zero means Zero plan will directly impact frontline community services, reduce service hours, defer additional maintenance, and undermine cleanliness across the city’s parks and recreation system; and will have a disproportionate impact on residents’ day to day lives.”

It has become clear that the mayor plans to eliminate the city’s Climate and Sustainability Department. More widespread service and staff reductions will certainly follow. And despite all these cuts, fees for many services will go up.

Councillor Pete Fry has been in the forefront of trying to get clarity on budget specifics, He even attempted to amend the mayor’s budget motion to mandate that specific details be included on anticipated cuts and expenditures but the mayor said he would not support the amendment as it was “not helpful.”

The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) and Councillor Sean Orr responded by launching a campaign to encourage residents to sign up to speak at Council. The campaign took fire immediately and over 630 people have registered to offer Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC majority their thoughts about his ‘cuts budget’. Never before have so many people registered to speak to City Council on a specific topic. It is an all-time record.

The first day of hearings on November 12^th — now viewed by 12,000 on YouTube — was sadly instructive. It was reported by the Tyee that, while still not providing Council with the requested details on anticipated cuts, deputy city manager Armin Amrolia noted that staff have identified removing some baby changing tables as well as menstrual product dispensers from certain city-operated public washrooms as a way to save money because those items are often vandalized.

Councillor Orr later posted on Instagram that the mayor had commented after the first day’s feedback session, “Well that was an awesome waste of time. Another day in paradise.”

Further speakers were heard on November 13^th, November 18^th, and still more on November 19^th.

Rumour has it that so many Vancouverites oppose the budget that it has caused fresh turmoil within the ABC caucus. ABC city councillors, already fearful for their chances at re-election in 2026, are now having second thoughts about supporting Sim’s plan.

It is too early to predict with any certainty, but I would not be surprised at all if one or perhaps even two ABC city councillors break ranks and vote against Sim’s budget. As ABC now has only seven members on council, and six is the majority needed if the budget is to pass, if two do break ranks, Mayor Sim will suffer his largest political defeat yet.

Debate and decision on the proposed 2026 budget will take place at the Council meeting on November 25, 2025, at 9:30am.

 

Daily atmospheric CO₂ [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]

Latest daily total (November 18, 2025): 426.57ppm

One year ago (November 17, 2024): 423.63ppm