Breaking down Vancouver's 2017 property tax hike

Costs are rising for Vancouver's already overstretched homeowners, with Vancouver city council green-lighting a proposed 3.9-per-cent property tax increase in 2017. Of that, 0.5 per cent is being allocated to help address the city's fentanyl crisis.

City councillors voted 8-3 in favour of the tax hike as part of the city's 2017 capital and operating budget.

In order to cover a $55-million increase in its operating budget, the draft budget originally proposed raising property taxes to the tune of 3.4 per cent, as well as increases in utility, recreation and permit fees, amounting to a total 4.6-per-cent tax hike for Vancouverites.

Now approved, this 3.4-per-cent property tax hike will bring in an additional $32.3 million in revenue, and the additional $25.3 million will come from service fees and utility revenue to meet the expenses outlined for 2017. According to the City, these revenues will amount to an extra $49 in costs for a median homeowner in Vancouver.

The draft budget declared that the property tax escalation is in line with inflation and is needed “to address the challenges of a growing city,” which include mental health and addiction, as well as fostering the city’s lifestyle and culture. To these ends, the City will use two per cent for “existing services and initiatives to further the City’s financial health and operational effectiveness,” and the remaining 1.4 per cent for new investments, “in key priority areas such as equity, safety and livability; housing needs and affordability; and arts and culture.”

An additional 0.5 per cent will address the city’s current fentanyl problem. Depending on the housing type, this will cost the average homeowner an extra $4 and $11 in 2017. This 0.5 increase was first mentioned in a special memo by a city staffer, which cited the overwhelming number of lives lost in Vancouver to overdoses – over 600 in 2016 – as well as the higher stress and augmented workload that the fentanyl problem has caused for first responders and front-line service providers, before bluntly stating, “This is a crisis.” To date, it remains unclear whether this public health emergency “will get worse, improve or continue at this level,” says the memo.

The memo declares that the 0.5-per-cent tax increase will raise approximately $3.5 million, bringing the city council's contingency fund to $7.5 million, and it suggests that these funding reserves would provide city council with more flexibility as it assesses the fentanyl crisis and determines the best coarse of action to combat it.

Proposed solutions to the problem include the addition of a new medical unit in the Downtown Eastside, more shelter spaces, and a new community-policing centre in Strathcona. The proposal also includes the allocation of funds to enhance training and mental health support for front-line service providers.

The additional 0.5-per-cent tax will bring the overall tax surge for Vancouverites up to 5.1 per cent. Not surprisingly, the idea has been met with criticism: although the budget argues that Vancouver’s property tax increases have been among the lowest in communities across the Lower Mainland in recent years, property assessments ballooned to 17 per cent in 2016, leaving many Vancouverites feeling stretched financially.