Colleen Hardwick has been researching the evolution of civic governance in the City of Vancouver and has uncovered some interesting revelations regarding the business and financial models of the city's budgets: operating and capital, have been restructured over recent decades.
For example, beginning in 2009 the City regularized CACs as a revenue stream in the capital budget, and at the same time changed the definitions of what constituted a capital expenditure. Historical line-item budgets morphed into “budget presentation documents” full of narrative and infographics. Mission creep, empire-building and downloading from senior levels of government have combined to double the budget, and double-digit tax increases.
In her presentation on Wednesday morning, Colleen will trace the history of Vancouver’s civic governance models and their implications on the City’s current and future financial wellbeing.
