Opinion: What a property tax freeze doesn't tell us

Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

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Recently, a family member told me about a survey on municipal taxation. Would they prefer to freeze their property taxes, even if it meant reducing services, or pay more to maintain them? They chose the freeze. Their child had grown older and no longer needed the community centre camps and recreational programs the family once relied on.

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It’s an understandable answer. But the question assumed a freeze means fewer services and an increase means keeping them. Neither is necessarily true.

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It’s also the choice behind a familiar election promise. ABC Vancouver has again pledged a zero property tax increase for 2027. What would that actually mean? Vancouver’s last freeze offers a clue. In November 2025, council approved a $2.39 billion operating budget with no increase in the property tax rate. Balancing it, the city said, required $120 million in savings and new revenue.

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Yet total operating revenue was budgeted to rise by about $50 million, including $9.3 million more in property tax revenue and higher parking, program and bylaw-fine revenues. Average utility charges rose 4.2 per cent — about $107 for a single-family home, which the city attributed to aging pipes and higher regional water and sewer levies.

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Property taxes make up only about 56 per cent of the city’s operating revenue, according to a recent report from the University of Toronto’s Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance. The rest comes from utility charges, fees, parking and other sources, so a city can freeze one while raising others. Its Property Endowment Fund contribution to operations has also grown from $9 million in 2022 to $23 million in 2026.

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A frozen rate, in other words, is not frozen revenue, let alone frozen cost. It doesn’t tell us whether costs have fallen, risen or simply moved elsewhere.

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Costs rarely stand still. Collective agreements set wages, buildings need maintenance, and even holding service levels steady can require more spending. That spending deserves scrutiny. Vancouver’s inflation-adjusted operating expenditures grew by an average of 2.2 per cent a year between 2010 and 2024, while population grew 1.4 per cent. The figures can’t say whether that reflects inefficiency, changing standards or new responsibilities, but they justify asking.

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Holding the line takes some mix of efficiencies, spending reductions, alternative revenues and changed plans. These are not interchangeable. A library that buys supplies more cheaply has found an efficiency. One that closes an extra day a week has cut a service. A city that coordinates road reconstruction with underground utility work may save money. One that postpones necessary maintenance may simply be sending the bill to the future.