Vancouver firefighters attend a call to an overdose victim.Rafal Gerszak/The Globe and Mail
Vancouver is mulling a 0.5-per-cent property-tax increase to help fund its fight against the drug-overdose crisis in the city.
The proposed tax, added at the last minute to 2017 budget recommendations that already include a property-tax increase of 3.4 per cent, would generate an additional $3.5-million to go toward resources such as a new community policing centre, additional front-line staff and a new medic unit for the Downtown Eastside fire hall. It adds to a proposed tax increase that was already more than what the city's own research indicates residents are willing to pay.
Councillor Geoff Meggs had asked staff last week to explore additional budget options given the unpredictability of the overdose crisis that has killed more than 622 British Columbians so far this year, including at least 124 in Vancouver.
Read more: A Killer High: Fentanyl's Deadly Path: How the powerful drug gets through Canada's border
"A lot of us felt that the problems we had seen start to emerge over the spring, and get much worse over the summer, were continuing to accelerate," Mr. Meggs said in an interview. "We lock in the budget for 12 months – we have very little flexibility to go back and get extra money – and the contingency reserve is quite small."
Mayor Gregor Robertson's recent ride-along with firefighters in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside also helped convince council that more resources are needed on the front lines, Mr. Meggs said.
Patrice Impey, chief financial officer of Financial Services and Human Resources for the City of Vancouver, submitted recommendations to council that were discussed Wednesday. They include up to $1.8-million for a Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services medic unit, staffed 24 hours a day; up to $130,000 for mental-health support for front-line workers; and approximately $250,000 to fund a street-cleaning program in which people with barriers to employment collect discarded needles.
For a median single-family home assessed at $1.4-million, a 3.4-per-cent property-tax increase – which was being proposed before Wednesday's addition – would mean $72 more over 2016.
Council will vote on the budget next Tuesday.
Councillor Melissa De Genova questioned why the recommendation is to increase the property tax by 0.5 per cent rather than looking within the budget.
"We have buzz words: 'Innovation funds,' 'economic commissions,'" she said. "If we are in such a crisis and we're not asking the province to step up … why aren't we looking within our budget instead of putting that burden on the taxpayer?"
The city is proposing residents pay more to cope with the fentanyl crisis at a time when a sizable tax increase could be difficult to sell. The city's own research shows that only a small minority of residents would be willing to pay an extra three per cent in property taxes, while others are bracing for larger increases due to rapidly increasing property values.
Ms. Impey said the additional property tax is warranted to address the exceptional circumstances; Mr. Meggs said in an interview the city's already had to add resources in a number of areas, such as housing, and there is nowhere within the budget to pull from.
On Tuesday, the union representing Vancouver's firefighters issued a public call for more resources, noting its Downtown Eastside fire hall had surpassed 1,255 calls in November – twice as many as from the same period last year. In council on Wednesday, union president Robert Weeks said the fire hall was on pace to hit 1,600 this month, which would make it "the busiest fire hall in Canada – by a significant amount."
About a week earlier, the B.C. government provided B.C. Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) with $5-million specifically to respond to the overdose crisis. The service, which now responds to 50 or 60 overdose calls a day throughout Greater Vancouver, saw more than 100 a day in the last two weeks of November.
Carfentanil, a synthetic opioid much more toxic than fentanyl, arrived in B.C. this fall and is suspected to be the cause of several spikes in overdoses.
BCEHS executive vice-president Linda Lupini said the funding means the service is now comfortably equipped to respond to another spike, but underscored that more needs to be done to address the root problems.
"We are treating a symptom, and the underlying problem is widespread addiction," she said.