Comments on Victoria's 2025 Draft Budget

The City of Victoria is soliciting input on the 2025 Draft Budget until Sunday, November 17. For what it's worth, here's the input I sent in.

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Dear Mayor and Council,

Here are my comments on the 2025 Draft Budget. They are based on reading the Draft Budget Summary, the Draft Budget, and the Council Orientation presentation from the October 24 COTW meeting. My comments are structured as a set of observations, followed by a list of what I would recommend as city priorities, and some comments on specific projects.

I would like to start, however, by expressing my appreciation for the way in which the budget is set out. I’ve lived in a number of cities over the years, and Victoria’s engagement materials are consistently among the clearest and most accessible that I have seen. That said, there are two areas that I think could be clearer:

• The Council Orientation presentation did a good job of explaining why capital budget costs are increasing (including the built-in 3% annual increase through 2030). That was one aspect of the budget that I didn’t think was well represented in the engagement materials.
• I was able to derive the 12.77% (now 12.17%) property tax increase number, but it wasn’t easy! I found it striking that the property tax increase was substantially larger than the budget increase. I believe that many people will think that a 12% property tax increase represents 12% more spending, and I think it would be useful to show how expenditures and taxes are linked.

Observations

• I live in a strata and am on our strata council. I have seen first hand that maintenance costs have been increasing over the last few years, and I have no trouble understanding why the city’s costs are going up as well.
• A 12.17% increase in my property taxes would cost my household an additional $140 a year. This doesn’t bother me at all. A typical take-out for me and Irene from Big Wheel Burger costs about $30, and four or five takeouts is a small price to pay for continued reliable sewer system, clean water, more safe places to walk and roll, well kept parks, etc.
• At the same time, I’m sure many people will be triggered by seeing an increase of over 10%, and that few of them will actually read the budget materials before blowing off steam. If Victoria’s city council feels the need to cut the budget, then those cuts should be principled and follow a well thought out set of priorities. My personal priorities are given below.
• The debt capacity discussion in the council orientation presentation is concerning to me, especially when the Crystal Pool replacement is added in.
• I continue to strongly believe that the Victoria Police Department budget should be separated from the City of Victoria budget. The police budget is set by the Victoria Police Board and the province, not by the city, and it should not be treated like a budget item the city controls. Regardless of one’s feelings about police spending, the budget should be separate.

Priorities

As I mentioned earlier, if Council decides to reduce the budget, then it should do so based on a strong set of priorities. I spent thirty years working for a large multinational corporation, and saw many rounds of budget cutting. There was always a temptation to try across-the-board cuts in search of “efficiency,” but that sort of mindless cutting never seemed to work out well. It was much better to target cuts so that the remaining programs were well funded and could operate smoothly.

That said, here are my priorities for the city:

1. Maintain the physical infrastructure of the city.
• Deferring maintenance dramatically increases downstream costs, and is almost always a false savings.
• I very much appreciate Council’s strong commitment to maintaining our aging infrastructure and staying on top of maintenance (e.g., underground infrastructure, road resurfacing, etc.).
2. Update infrastructure to reflect new realities. The city’s population is growing, and the climate is changing. If we want to have a vibrant city, then we have to have more people on the street shopping, having fun, etc.. Doing that will require:
• Wider, unobstructed, sidewalks.
• More and better bike & roll lanes.
• Better transit.
• Slower streets.
• Safer street crossings.
• Public washrooms.
• Accessible, family friendly, sidewalks. As we strive to bring more families downtown, we should remember that accessible sidewalks not only benefit people with mobility issues, but also people wheeling a baby carriage.
3. A growing population needs places to play. To me, than means:
• Prioritizing projects to make the city more pedestrian friendly, creating third spaces, etc.
• Making better use of some of our underutilized spaces, such as Centennial Square.
• Keeping our parks attractive and accessible. This means landscaping, and also adequate numbers of accessible, family friendly, washrooms.
4. Prioritize Multi-Purpose Flexible Spaces Over Those for Specific Activities
• If money is tight, I am far more willing to defer spending on new, activity specific, facilities than I am on general maintenance and landscaping. Kids and adults are good at finding ways to play.
• Programs that activate existing spaces are often more important than investments in fancy new spaces, and are easier to alter as circumstances change. 
5. Prioritize Process Improvements
• Because we are in the midst of a historic housing shortage, and because our population is growing, one of the most important tasks of the city is approving development applications. The city is responding by, among other things, revamping the OCP and revamping zoning to be in alignment with the new OCP.
• This is a huge opportunity to simplify processes and get rid of some of the guidelines and regulations that add huge costs, not just to housing projects, but also to the city.
• For example, the city’s family housing program guidelines require a certain percentage of two and three bedroom apartments in new projects, and also recognizes that those requirements are not always feasible. This has the unfortunate consequence of requiring time-consuming negotiations between developers and city staff. That costs both the city and the developers time and money. If, instead, the city provided incentives for two and three bedroom apartments, such as density bonuses or exempting some or all of the bedrooms from FAR, the city could achieve it’s family housing goals without [spending time and money on negotiations.]

Specific Projects

The following projects are listed in the Highlights section of the 2025 Draft Budget Summary.

Project	Comments
Truth and Reconciliation	Worthwhile and not much money.
Community Safety and Wellbeing
Victoria Police Budget	Largely outside of the city’s control.
Fire Services & Bylaw Services	Necessary services. Fire services should prioritize smaller, highly capable, vehicles that are suitable for our older, narrow, streets. These vehicles are popular in Europe and Asia.
OUR DWTN	This is a great program.
Underground Infrastructure	Needs to be done.
Roads and Multi-Modal Improvements
Road restoration & rehabilitation	Needs to be done. I’ve read about how the city prioritizes road resurfacing projects, and it all makes sense to me.
Multi-modal corridor improvements	This is a high priority for me. It’s part of adapting the city to the changing reality of a growing population. If the city wants to be family friendly, it needs to recognize that children, seniors, people with disabilities, and many others, can’t, don’t, or shouldn’t drive. Furthermore, we need to make it attractive for most people to get around without a car, so that those people and services that need to use motor vehicles can do so effectively. The alternative is crippling congestion.
Traffic calming	Another high priority for me, other seniors I know, and all of my friends with young children.
Accessible sidewalks	It’s tough to roll a wheelchair or a baby carriage down a sidewalk blocked by poles. If we want to be family friendly, we need the sidewalks to work for people with young children, people with canes, people with poor balance, people with mobility aids, etc..
New crosswalks & upgrades	Part of accessibility.
Remediating under-sidewalk basements downtown	I hope this includes Broad Street between Fort and Broughton. That’s a disaster for the businesses there, and a real detriment to the downtown pedestrian experience.
Infrastructure Projects and Upgrades
Renewing aging park infrastructure	Important role of city government.
Detailed design and construction of the first phase of the Centennial Square Revitalization	I strongly support this project. The original, 1960s design, for Centennial Square has never worked well. The proposed design is much better, and I’m hopeful it will make the square a useful part of downtown again. Today, it’s really  not, and it’s in too important a location to ignore.
Regional pickleball hub	I know pickleball has become very popular, but this is a lot of money to spend on a very specific activity, and would be a good candidate to defer.
Crystal Pool Replacement referendum	I think the city has already committed to doing the referendum.
Irving Park and Pemberton Park playgrounds	Family friendly cities are healthy cities.
Royal Athletic Park upgrades	Except for maintenance to minimize future expenditures, I would consider deferring this. Royal Athletic Park is not generally open to the public. I would prefer that we spend money on projects that benefit everyone.
Government Street Refresh	This is a great project, and provides an important public space in the heart of downtown. There are virtually no open areas in downtown for creating new parks, so the best way to support our growing population is to create public, pedestrian friendly, third spaces like Government Street.
Climate Action
Low carbon fleet	While I don’t know the details of what the city plans, I am generally in favour of adopting low-carbon vehicles as our existing vehicles wear out. I also support installing the infrastructure needed to support that transition. I do not support replacing existing, useful, vehicles. I am also not a fan of installing charging stations on city streets.
Waste bins with zero waste stations	Sure, though this would also be a deferrable expense. Depending on how they operate I would need to be convinced that people will actually use them. My own observation is that people throw stuff into the first receptacle they find, regardless of how it’s labeled. If we don’t get good separation, then I see no point in having multiple bins.
Community Planning
City wide and area based planning	I often feel that our planning guidelines are overly specific, that it is impossible to regulate good taste, and that many of our guidelines - in their attempt to prevent bad design - end up driving up costs and preventing great, innovative designs. I think less might be more. At the same time, I think that making sure we have the recreational, transportation, and infrastructure necessary to support growth is a critical part of what the city offers.
Climate Action	The city needs to respond to the effects of climate change, and should, in its own actions, model climate leadership. At the same time, we should not forget that the single biggest thing the city can do to be environmentally responsible is to make it attractive for more people to live closer to the goods and services they use every day. Encouraging multi-family housing and active transportation is boring, but far more effective than any amount of “gizmo green”. Also, actions to reduce carbon emissions long term (like not using gas in new construction) are way more important than achieving the highest possible energy efficiency rating or installing solar panels.
Heritage	I am often not a fan of heritage designations. Certain buildings deserve preservation, but, too often, heritage designations are used as a tool to prevent multi-family housing in a neighbourhood, and I do not support that at all.