City council covers deficits for Vancouver police and fire service

The city council in Vancouver has approved top-ups to cover this year’s deficits in the city’s police and fire departments.

Both – the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) and the Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) – have requested city hall to cover their deficits before next year’s budget is tabled.

With Wednesday’s decision, the city council agreed to pay the VPD’s $17 million outstanding balance as well as the VFRS’s $4.6 million deficit.

Both departments argued that additional costs stem from staffing vacancies and overtime of employees.

The VPD says a higher number of protests and demonstrations, ongoing work for Task Force Barrage, adjustments related to fringe benefits, and unexpected costs associated with the Lapu-Lapu Day tragedy have increased costs.

According to VFRS, the department had to cover unplanned fleet maintenance.

The proposed VPD budget for 2026 totals $497 million, including a $50 million increase requested by the department.

With this budget increase and the covering of the deficit, Green Party councillor Pete Fry says that other services will likely have funding cut.

“We already know that we can anticipate some pretty significant cuts elsewhere in the organization for staffing and services,” Fry told 1130 NewsRadio.

“That increased police budget and increased fire budget will come at the expense of other priorities and staff and operations of the City of Vancouver.”

Fry adds that Mayor Ken Sim’s “zero mean zero” property tax freeze will put an additional burden on the city’s services

Councillor Fry uneasy about how Task Force Barrage was funded

”We haven’t been given any real sense of a detailed and articulated plan to achieve system improvements or other ways to lower the budget impacts,” he said.

Fry expects layoffs of City of Vancouver employees.

“So, what we’re seeing is just going to be layoffs, voluntary separation, and cuts to services.”

Fry says he supports public safety. However, he has concerns about how funding for Task Force Barrage was not approved in an open council.

“If we’re going to have faith in our institutions, like policing, there needs to be a clear separation of policing and politics and appearance of influence, and really not adhering to the rule of law. And that’s what the case was with this approval of Operation Barrage.”

Council is due to be presented with the 2026 draft budget at its meeting on Nov. 12.

With files from Ben Bouguerra.