VanStat Infrastructure Levy Increase
Motion 2 · Standing Committee of Council on City Finance and Services, May 20, 2026
Summary
- Directs staff to increase the annual infrastructure renewal levy from 1% to 2% of the city's tax base.
- At 1%, closing the estimated $500 million annual infrastructure deficit would take approximately 40 years; doubling the levy would reduce that to roughly 20 years.
- Staff presented evidence that 60% of city-owned buildings have a poor Facility Condition Index rating, with $1.5 billion in deferred maintenance across approximately 700 sites.
- Councillor Maloney moved the motion; Councillor Bligh abstained, citing insufficient detail on the fiscal pathway before committing to the increase.
Vote
Public comments
Read all 1 statements
Transcript
21 segments
Before we begin this agenda item, if anyone believes they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to declare it. Does anyone have a conflict of interest to disclose? This item does not have a team member presentation. And council members, you have up to five minutes to ask questions of team members. Are there any questions? Okay, so if no questions, I'm going to call the registered speaker for this report. Public speakers should state whether they are in support or in opposition of the recommendations and may only speak once. I will also ask speakers if they are residents of Vancouver if it is not noted on the speakers' list. Our first and only public speaker is Nathan Davidovich.
Didn't know it was They're not talking before.
Oh Okay. Well, thank you chair and members of council The the history of the can be bridge is the long history I
I remember being at the opening of the third Cambie Bridge on December 8, 1985. Well, it was my birthday and also happy belated birthday to Chancellor Rohr. He had his birthday on Monday.
Mayor Mike Harcourt was at the opening ceremony for the new bridge. and our best mayor in the last 50 years, and the only second pro-transit premier in the history of BC. Harcourt was born in Edmonton, one of the few Canadian cities where the majority of city Councillors take transit regularly, not just once in a while, but regularly. And that's been going on for many, many years in Edmonton. Fast forward to the mid-2010s, I was attending a newest minister courthouse to hear the two-day discussion about the safety of the Canby Bridge. A citizen who was involved in an accident on the bridge was suing the city for building an unsafe bridge. The main point was the bad median that was on the bridge. The old bad median has been replaced after the court case. But the point is that there's many design features that has to be improved on the Cambie Bridge. And by approving this contract without the details and how the bridge going to look five or 10 years from now, We are making a big mistake. I mean, everybody's laughing at the city of Vancouver having three northbound lane and only two southbound lanes for vehicles and buses and no bus-only lanes. So we are a laughingstock. And unless you table this and look at all the options and everything else or request a proper report from the staff who... did not build the bridge, of course, because all that stuff from the 1980s retired, then, you know, nothing much will happen. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Nathan. Thank you for speaking to the standing committee. Okay, so would someone like to move a motion? Moved by Councillor Kerbion. Do we need a seconder? Seconded by Councillor Maloney. Committee members, is there any discussion? I saw Councillor Wu.
Yeah, sorry, I missed the questions. So I guess through you, Cher, just a question about City Studio under Canby Bridge. Looks like it will be demolished. City Studio, as we know, is a nonprofit incubator, sort of gets kids interested in... city planning, among other things. And I believe there's also the 311 call center there. Just wondering about the relocation of those services.
Lon LeClaire, General Manager of Engineering Services. Yeah, so in order to complete this work, this by-glass building that's under the Canby Bridge must be demolished to kind of work on the foundations of the bridge piers. There's a number of staff that currently occupy that building. All of those staff will be relocated to new facilities that is incorporated into the cost of the project.
So that's just, we can't really avoid that? That's just sort of something that just has to happen with this?
That's correct. The building physically surrounds the column and is in close proximity to other columns.
And then what about some of the infrastructure on the north side, the skate park, that's all going to be maintained? or not, sorry, the basketball court and all that, that's going to be maintained?
Yeah, so Cooper's Park on the north side is impacted during the construction for the same reasons, because of the foundations. All of the recreational facilities there will be reinstated. There are some upgrades that are planned, in particular for the shoreline. So we're working with the park board on replacing, rather than the kind of the hard edge seawall, it's kind of a naturalized shoreline. Oh, okay. So it's part of an ecosystem restoration exercise.
Yeah. Just, you know, sadly, the conversation around means prevention and the Granville Street Bridge has been on everybody's minds, and I understand Counselor Dominato. There's a motion coming next week. I did note the mention of the, that means protection or prevention is not included in this, but the design accounts for the potential installation. Can you walk us through what that might look like, why we wouldn't consider doing it now, and what cost difference would be, say, doing it now versus doing it some other time?
Yeah, so at this point, the railings themselves are in good condition, so we're not anticipating any particular changes to the railings. When we installed the means prevention fencing on the Burrard Bridge, the railings were actually crumbling and in required replacement. And so as a coordinated project, that was a more natural addition. For this project, it would be an added cost that would be over and above what we're planning to do with this work and a significantly increased scope. Having said that, the risk at this site is substantially lower than it is for the higher bridges. Because this is a low bridge, we don't see that type of activity nearly as much.
Okay. Any sense of what it would cost to do it now versus do it later? Obviously, that's like a...
I mean, it would be in probably the tens of millions. The early estimates that we did on the Granville Bridge were certainly in the tens of millions, and probably similar for the Canby Bridge.
Thank you. Thanks. All right. Seeing no one else on the queue, I'm going to call the vote. So, remember that any committee member participating virtually whose video is disabled will be marked absent for the vote pursuant to the section 14.13 of procedure bylaw. So, clerk, please take us to the voting screen and committee members, please register your vote.
Chair, can I please get a vote assist in favor?
Statement Watch
Oh Okay. Well, thank you chair and members of council The the history of the can be bridge is the long history I I remember being at the opening of the third Cambie Bridge on December 8, 1985. Well, it was my birthday and also happy belated birthday to Chancellor Rohr. He had his birthday on Monday. Mayor Mike Harcourt was at the opening ceremony for the new bridge. and our best mayor in the last 50 years, and the only second pro-transit premier in the history of BC. Harcourt was born in Edmonton, one of the few Canadian cities where the majority of city Councillors take transit regularly, not just once in a while, but regularly. And that's been going on for many, many years in Edmonton. Fast forward to the mid-2010s, I was attending a newest minister courthouse to hear the two-day discussion about the safety of the Canby Bridge. A citizen who was involved in an accident on the bridge was suing the city for building an unsafe bridge. The main point was the bad median that was on the bridge. The old bad median has been replaced after the court case. But the point is that there's many design features that has to be improved on the Cambie Bridge. And by approving this contract without the details and how the bridge going to look five or 10 years from now, We are making a big mistake. I mean, everybody's laughing at the city of Vancouver having three northbound lane and only two southbound lanes for vehicles and buses and no bus-only lanes. So we are a laughingstock. And unless you table this and look at all the options and everything else or request a proper report from the staff who... did not build the bridge, of course, because all that stuff from the 1980s retired, then, you know, nothing much will happen. Thank you very much.