Advancing the Right to Food in Vancouver with Adequate Funding - Vancouver 2026 Budget Brief

The City of Vancouver majority ABC Council has brought forward a proposed 2026 budget with a 0% property tax increase. While claiming to maintain the services people count on most, including community grants, public safety, road and sidewalk maintenance, and community centre and library hours, this budget will require that the City identify $120 million in revenue opportunities and expenditure savings. The budget however lacks transparency and gives no line by line details as to where cuts will be made. Most concerning are significant proposed cuts to Arts, Culture and Community Services (12%) as well as Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability (14%) crucial areas that support equity, well-being, environmental sustainability, affordability and livability.

This is an austerity budget that threatens to cut important services that will impact lower income, working class and renters the most, while wealthier property classes will gain. In fact, the City’s own public consultation survey showed that the majority of respondents preferred a property tax increase that would maintain the current level of services.

Food systems funding has never been prioritized in Vancouver and amounts to a mere .03% of the total City budget including capital spending. Years of advocating for increased food funding have amounted to nothing and this budget kills any hope of seeing any new food systems funding, certainly in this budget. We expect no increases and have even been told to brace for possible cuts.

In response the Vancouver Food Justice Coalition prepared our budget submission titled Advancing the Right to Food in Vancouver with Adequate Funding reminding our local government of their duty to uphold the full right to dignified food, free of charity. Our prepared statement to the Council Budget Hearing, Nov 13, 2025 is as follows:

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Hello Mayor and Council.

On behalf of the Vancouver Food Justice Coalition representing 50 local social service organizations, we are opposed to this budget as presented and concerned that the significant cuts required will negatively impact the quality of services which strive to ensure equity and accessibility that build livable cities.

Without a transparent budget and not knowing where these cuts will be made, this budget creates uncertainty for those of us delivering important services that support key City policies such as the Healthy City Strategy.

This at a time of growing inequity, unaffordability and job precarity!

We are being told that there will be no increases to grants and brace for possible cuts, even after years of saying these grants are not even keeping up with the cost of living and where City food systems funding amounts to a mere .03% of the City’s budget.

Food systems grants were rolled back this year from a three-year grant cycle to a one-year grant in light of budget uncertainty. After years of advocating for greater granting stability, this reversal impacts our ability for long-term sustainable planning and program delivery.

The budget proposes 12% cuts to Arts Culture and Community Services but we have no idea where the cuts will fall. We are encouraged that ACCS has said that there be no cuts to social policy grants, however, those most vulnerable will be most impacted and non-profits experiencing increased demand, deserve at a minimum a modest increase to these grants so none is left behind.

Perhaps the 12% cut will come in the form of staff reductions but we know that the three food planning staff positions currently are insufficient to address their workload. This includes, for example, staff’s ability to coordinate communications between themselves and Development to align and identify development projects that could strengthen food assets or other social infrastructure.

The Coalition submitted a budget brief last week. It is titled Advancing the Right to Food in Vancouver with Adequate Funding and is a reminder to all levels of government your responsibility and legal duty to uphold the right to dignified food access as a basic human right. Declarations such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to which Canada is a signatory, along with the Vancouver Food Strategy and Local Parks Board Food Action Plan provide strong frameworks to achieve this right, however we are failing in this work without adequate funding.

Last year, Council unanimously passed the motion “Closing the Gap: Investing in the City of Vancouver’s Food System to Increase Food Access and Support a Resilient, Equitable, and Sustainable Food System for All This gave us hope that after many years, we might see an increase to food systems funding. On the contrary, this budget looks to kill that motion. If we are to advance the right to food, free of charity, I urge you to honor this motion.

In closing, with no certainty that this budget will protect these services nor maintain affordable user fees especially for lower income residents, we cannot support this budget as presented. ….Thank you