I need your help to stop Ken Sim's Awful 2026 Budget

ABC's brutal budget is going to ruin our city. Every single person reading this should speak out now.

ABC has released their draft 2026 budget document, which is totally bizarrely unprofessional and does not itemize new cuts or expenses.

This opaque budget won't tell us what Sim and ABC plan to cut.

And he wants Council to vote on that? It’s unbelievable.

Please do me a personal favour and sign up immediately to speak to City Council this Wednesday via phone HERE.

Even if you’re unsure right now if you can make the timing work, please do get on the speakers list. You can always pull out, but once the list is closed, you can’t change your mind.

Every single person reading this: this is our time to stand up for the city.

If it’s your first time speaking, or you want more help, we’ll help make it easy.

COPE will be hosting a budget briefing and talk-to-council training on Tuesday evening on Zoom. If you sign up to speak to council, please also add your name here to receive more information in the coming days.

Millions in cuts. No line-by-line budget. Just ‘trust me bro’

The budget says enough that we know that deep cuts are coming to almost everything.

We know that library staff and services will need to be cut under this ABC budget due to rising costs and expenditures.

We know that social and community grants, which are already insufficient, are being frozen below inflation.

The only department that is beating inflation is the police department. 

We know that he's going to bring at least $6m in cuts to Arts, Culture, and Social Programs, but probably more.

We know that recreation fees will skyrocket to make up for lost revenue, and since parks and recreation's insufficient budget is below inflation, we'll see service cuts at parks and recreation. I’m worried in particular about the Leisure Access Pass, which will face strong pressures under the demand for millions in “new revenues.” ABC rejected my amendment to protect it from cuts.

We know that there will be millions of cuts to Planning and Sustainability, which could mean cuts to things like non-market housing development and homelessness services

We know they’re going to find cheap savings by back-loading the city budget with ticking time bombs, by doing things like firing in-house legal opinion, (and paying higher rates for external counsel in the future), or paying more interest later by slowing down payments on infrastructure debts.

Please Speak Out On The Budget

Vancouver doesn’t have to be this way. This budget process is going to dwarf all previous ABC decisions in its brutal impact on our city. Vancouver will be badly damaged in ways that will take years to repair if this awful plan goes through.

Your voice matters. This is the people’s city.

We have to continue to show that people reject this plan. I’m rallying opposition councillors to join me in using every tool we have to resist this. We can’t give up on stopping it, or coast on the knowledge that it will be deeply unpopular with the electorate. We have to actually fight to stop it.

Please, again, sign up to speak here and sign up here for more information from the COPE team on the budget, and an invite to our upcoming briefing and training session.