VANCOUVER, B.C.: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Mayor Ken Sim to save taxpayers millions by immediately implementing key recommendations from the Mayor’s Budget Task Force Report.

“The mayor’s own task force identified obvious ways to stop wasting millions of dollars and city hall needs to save taxpayers money by making those recommendations happen right now,” said Carson Binda, the CTF’s B.C. Director. “There are no excuses for wasting all of this money – the mayor knows what to do and now he needs to get it done.”

The Mayor’s Budget Task Force Report make 17 recommendations, most obvious of which include:

• Making sure city employees actually show up to work, each day of reduced absenteeism across the board will save $4.5 million per year.
• Exiting the city’s failed real-estate management scheme, the Property Endowment Fund, to return $5.7 billion to Vancouver taxpayers. 
• Focusing on city responsibilities and no longer spending in areas that overlap provincial and federal responsibilities to save $380 million per year.

City staff have an average absence rate of 18 days per year for every full-time worker. That far exceeds the provincial average of 10 days. In some departments, like the Parks Board, that rate is all the way up to 25 days per year.  

If city staff showed up to work at the provincial average, it would save $36 million per year, according to the Mayor’s Budget Task Force Report. 

The city’s Property Endowment Fund holds $5.7 billion worth of land and facilities. Most of the properties are leased out to third parties. That $5.7 billion fund only generated $13 million in dividends in 2023, which works out to an abysmal 0.2 per cent return on investment. 

The report also shows the city spent $380 million on areas of provincial and federal jurisdiction, such as health and social services, and recommends returning those services to provincial responsibility.

“Taxpayers work hard for the money they pay in taxes and it’s absolutely unacceptable that city hall is wasting it because city bureaucrats don’t show up to work and it’s bad at real-estate management,” said Binda. “City hall needs to implement these recommendations and start saving taxpayers money now.” 

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