Vancouver’s mayor says he’s seen city-led research that suggests up to 25 per cent of the city’s property owners may not be able to pay their property taxes in full or at all this year, adding further concern to the city’s financial outlook amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Kennedy Stewart said Sunday that if those deferrals come to pass, the city could lose up to $500 million from its operating budget, which would be “absolutely devastating.” “If we lost half a billion dollars in revenue, we would have to really burn through all our stand-by cash we have, all our reserves, and we may even have to sell some city lands in order to meet all our obligations, so it’s a very serious situation,” he said. “We’re in the middle of finalizing our