 | Friday, April 02, 2021
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday. | | How Vancouver went from warnings of bankruptcy to a $229M surplus | | |  | | | How could the City of Vancouver go from the threat of bankruptcy to a $229 million surplus in the course of a year?
It was a question a lot of people had last week when Vancouver released its annual Statement of Financial Information — a document all B.C. municipalities must make publicly available each year that includes the salaries of every employee earning more than $75,000 — showing the fully audited surplus for 2020.
Opponents of Mayor Kennedy Stewart used it to mock his previous worries about the financial consequences of COVID. Others wondered why a third straight year of property taxes going up by five per cent was necessary, or conversely, why the city wasn’t spending more on social services if it had so much money.
But as with a lot of controversies over municipal finances, context matters.
Consider: while that $229 million surplus is large, in 2019, it was $300.7 million. And lest you think this is unique to Vancouver, in 2019, Surrey’s budget surplus was $289 million, Coquitlam’s was $214 million and Richmond’s was $98 million.
Overall in 2019, B.C. municipalities had a combined annual surplus of $2.35 billion, the eighth straight year that figure eclipsed the billion dollar mark.The truth is that budgeting practices in most large B.C. municipalities create large structural surpluses year after year.
There’s a couple of reasons for this.
One is the legal requirement (prior to a one year exception for COVID) to never run a deficit: if you want to avoid trouble with higher levels of government, it’s better to err on the side of caution to ensure you’ll be in black at the end of the year.
But the other is a philosophical belief by many municipalities to fund large parts of their infrastructure through reserves, a “pay as you go” approach, rather than taking on debt for capital projects, which higher levels of government are generally much more comfortable doing.
It meant most municipalities were well positioned to deal with the pandemic, even before provincial assistance.
At the same time, it’s another reminder that not all levels of government are created equal — or have the same fiscal philosophies. | | |  | | | 1. Vancouver | Welcome back! We took the last three weeks off from the newsletter due to a minimum amount of council meetings, but rest assured, much is the same. In B.C.’s biggest city, Strathcona Park isn’t yet resolved, debates over bike lanes continue, council spends hours on motions (this one about a potential Olympic bid) that may not amount to anything. The cosmic ballet goes on, even as turmoil over the departure of senior city staff (like former planning director Gil Kelley) increases.
Read more | | | | |  | | | 2. Homelessness | Vancouver isn’t the only municipality where there are political tensions these days — the City of Penticton is deciding whether to legally challenge the province over a homeless shelter the government is keeping open, while in Victoria, a deal between the city and province to house encamped residents is being watched as a potential template.
Read more | | | |  | | | 3. Streets | There was plenty of attention over e-scooters given the green light two weeks ago, but with none of the six municipalities involved planning to allow scooting-sharing companies, the impact to streets might be minimal. However, a larger pilot program is likely coming to some Greater Victoria cities later this year — 30 or 40 km/h minimums on all side streets.
Read more | | | | | |  | | | 4. Pickleball! | As more people pick up the game and more municipalities embrace creating free spaces for it, there are bound to be more council controversies. Two recent cases in point: a conflict over whether White Rock can convert passive greenspace bequeathed to the city into new courts, and North Saanich delaying a decision on putting locks on currently existing courts.
Read more in the Saanich News | | | |  | | | 5. Ogopogo | What does a mythical lake monster synonymous with an entire region of B.C. have to do with municipal reconciliation? More than you’d think! Vernon city council narrowly voted to give copyright over the concept of the Ogopogo to the Syilx Nation — though it’s more symbolic than anything, as Vernon has never derived a profit from it.
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