Canadian cities face dire financial situation

City revenues across the country have collapsed due to COVID-19. About a month ago, municipalities asked the federal government for at least $10 billion. Where do things stand now? Power & Politics speaks to Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart.


Connect with CBC News Online:



»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

[Timbucktu]

Vancouver let foreign investors especially that from Chinese origins to bubble up real estate price. As the property value skyrocketed so does the basic living cost. So any kind of crash was bound to happen. Why it is surprising when the city doesn’t care about basic necessities but suddenly needs cash to run?

[JErnst-plxk]

Working from home, online education and internet shopping need to become the norm. This would allow us to turn every single office building, mall and school into affordable housing units....BOOM!!! housing crisis solved!!!!

[extratrillestrial]

The economy is more important the false sense of security we have been pushing.

Covid is not a threat to 99.8% of us and those who are vulnerable can follow similar isolation procedures as chemotherapy patients do when their immune system is down.

Shutting down the economy was a mistake from day 1

[hugol]

They should just print the money 💰 and pay themselves... PROBLEM SOLVED ...

[martinrev]

lol, "building new things, " we're broke.

[FredLiu]

The city, municipality worker, like people who giving parking tickets, has 24 dollars per hour. That's insane!

Definitely needs wage cut!

[allblowdup]

Can you imagine the jobs that would be created across the country if energy East was moved ahead. Less money leaving the country and more jobs.

[truckin]

Use the empty stores and offices for homeless shelters, imagine the homeless rates will be climbing even higher than they already were

[SkepticalChris]

should we count the millions upon millions, that his predecessor, Gregor Robertson squandered on useless bike lanes?

[zukaro]

I hope the future of tech jobs isn't work from home only. Though I do hope that remote work becomes more common, and more acceptable, but I think I'd prefer to work in an office than work from home (at least until I have my own place with my own proper home office).

[noshkhan]

Well look at there payroll how many traffic ticketers, how many bylaw officers, how many city workers, start cutting, every city worker vehicle brand new, you don't have to be a rocket science to trim budget, times they are a changing, and how many in city hall going to take a paycut, just a cash grab .

[paulchristiansen]

they what to get rid of alot of freedoms like going to the movies, bars and soo much more...wow..

[NoviceExpert]

I think it's time to reduce bureaucracy, cut government spending and reduce taxes. Families and businesses are struggling to pay their bills as it is.

[vojnikjna]

Push more fear and stress. Nice to know our government has our backs lol.

[jakerlbeau]

Next time you have Stewart on you should ask him about what he's doing to help people in the downtown east side during all this (or even in general)

[kimberlyriddell]

Toronto lockdown protest at Queens Park every Saturday at noon.

[leannecarter]

Don’t worry Vancouver and Toronto...when everyone defaults on their taxes the Chinese will swoop in and buy up huge swaths of Canadian Soil.

[grampab]

Eric Beatson I absolutely agree. Every government body, including school, health boards, etc, should be required to make public all wage & total compensation for each position that exists. I worked my entire life in municipal government & it is unbelievable how much certain positions are paid. The public would be very surprised. Government has gotten incredibly & unnecessarily too large & too complex. Citizens cannot afford the path governments are on. When cities with only 60, 000 people have employees being paid 250, 000 to 300, 000 in total compensation, this is asinine. With so many people out of work, there without question are people that would do the same job for 1/2 the amount.

[Tayvin]

He has a picture of a stormtrooper on his wall... As a Vancouverite and a Star Wars fan, this brings untold amounts of joy to me, despite the situation we're facing.

[robdavidson]

cut public pensions, private sector doesnt get it.
just saved you 10s of billions a year. your welcome.