← Special Council September 10, 2026
Very good morning everyone and welcome to the Vancouver City Council special council meeting of Thursday, September the 10th, 2026. This special council meeting has been called by myself under sections 2.5a and 14.5 of the procedure bylaw for the purpose of considering and enacting the bylaw entitled 2027 real property tax interest on arrears. This meeting is being held in person and by electronic means. Council members and the public may participate by either method. Any members joining electronically are reminded to enable video to confirm quorum. This meeting is being live streamed on the city's website and YouTube. Meeting progress will be updated on X and threads at Van City Clerk. Though due to new posting limits, updates will only cover essential items such as vote results. So with that, Clerk, can we please have roll call?
Thank you. Mayor Sim in the chair. Councillor Kirby Young.
Councillor Domonato.
Councillor Montague.
So there's one item of business on today's agenda. Bylaw number one, 2027 real property tax interest on arrears for consideration and enactment. Before we begin this agenda item, if anyone believes that they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to declare it. Does anybody have a conflict to declare? Seeing no one's hands up and no one in the queue, would someone like to move the motion to adopt bylaw one? Thank you, Councillor Claston, seconded by Councillor Zhou. Thank you very much. Councillor, is there any discussion?
Seeing no one in the queue. Oh, Councillor Maloney.
I have a couple of questions for staff.
How many properties have delinquent property taxes and what's the total value of the arrears?
It's roughly about $100 million right now, but that includes outstanding amounts associated with all kinds of properties over cumulative over multiple years. The average interest in a year is about $5 million over the last few years, but last year it was about $7.2 million.
Okay. And is there... Can you tell me what the breakdown is between residential and commercial properties?
Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself before. Rob Evans, Director of Revenue Services and Tax Policy. I don't actually have that information with me.
Has the number of properties in arrears been increasing?
Yes, it has been.
And are there circumstances such as estates or financial hardship that might account for a meaningful share of the residential tax arrears?
I think these are just general economic circumstances that are prevailing. We've noticed that there's more properties that are in arrears and it's consistent with messaging that we're hearing from other municipalities as well.
Okay, and what effect is this recommended decision going to have on whether people are more or less likely to use non-payment of property taxes as a preferential investment vehicle?
Well, the interest rate we're recommending, which has been council's practice for over 25 years, is the prime plus 4%. And the idea there is to incentivize people to pay their property taxes as opposed to other forms of loans that they have. And in terms of... the goal there is to get people to pay their property taxes because of course if people don't pay their property taxes after a number of years that will result in the sale of their property to fund their property taxes. Colin did you? Just to also note that the city does collect property taxes on behalf of other governments including the province and regional taxing authorities.
Okay, thanks. That's all my questions. Thanks very much.
Thanks. Thank you very much. Seeing no one else in the queue, I'm going to call the vote. All those in favor say yay. Yay. All those opposed say nay. Great. The motion carries unanimously. The approved bylaw can be found on the...
Motion to adjourn.
Seconded by Councillor Zhou. All those in favour say yay. All those opposed say nay. The motion carries unanimously and the special council meeting is adjourned.
Thank you everyone.