Vancouver’s operating budget not transparent, say councillors

By Frank Luba, The ProvinceMarch 5, 2012 1:06 PM

The civic opposition parties on Vancouver council have banded together to try get Monday night’s vote about the city operating budget deferred until they have more information.  Non-Partisan Association councillors George Affleck and Elizabeth Ball got together with Green Party councillor Adriane Carr to hold a press conference Monday morning on the steps of city hall to explain they want the vote deferred so they can get more information on the budget.  The trio maintained they have been unable to get the line-by-line, detailed information that used to be available to councillors. Consequently, they don’t believe they can really vote on a budget they haven’t examined in detail.  “It’s baffling to us,” said Ball of the lack of transparency compared to when she was previously on council from 2005 to 2008. Affleck has been frustrated in getting any answers to requests for more information. “They have said that each department has it [line-by-line budgets] but they can’t provide it to us,” he said. Carr has been in both provincial and federal budget lockups where detailed financial information is provided. She’s unhappy with the information provided at the civic level. “I was told it was probably too complicated to go through,” she said. All three councillors want to be given the opportunity to go over the budget in far more detail but those aspirations depend on a decision by the Vision Vancouver majority.