Vancouver grapples with $60M shortfall

The City of Vancouver is facing a $60-million budget shortfall for 2010, which could lead to staff layoffs, cuts in city services or higher municipal taxes.

The weak economy and funding cuts for municipalities are among the reasons the city is facing the potential deficit, city manager Penny Ballem said in a news release Monday.

"We are faced with city revenues at historically low levels, continuing weakness in the economy, budget cuts at the federal and provincial levels, implementation of the harmonized sales tax, new city facilities coming on stream and a compensation increase resulting from the 2007 wage agreements," Ballem said.

Mayor Gregor Robertson said there will be some layoffs of city staff but he hopes they will be "modest."

"City staff is working on how to fill the gap without a tax increase," Robertson said late Monday. But he said he could not rule out a tax increase or a cut in services.

The shortfall prompted Ballem's office to ask Vancouver's civic employees for money-saving ideas.

Staff submitted more than 1,000 ideas with 844 unique opportunities to save money, Ballem said.

Based on the findings of a review, the city will begin to share services across its branches in such areas as finance and information technology, and consolidate services that are duplicated, the news release said.

Without going into specifics, Ballem also said there will be "impacts on city staffing levels over the next three years."

Ballem did not say whether the efficiencies the city has identified will cover all of the multimillion-dollar shortfall.