VPD social spending report not very useful: mayor

VANCOUVER - Mayor Ken Sim has joined criticism of a report commissioned by the Vancouver Police Department that concludes $5 billion a year is being spent on the city's "social safety net."

The $142,000 report by Alberta-based HelpSeeker Technologies says the spending includes $1 million a day in the Downtown Eastside.

It lands on the sum of $5 billion after including items like the Vancouver police and fire budgets, federal supports such as pensions for all residents of the city, and the budgets of some non-profits and charities that provide services to the entire province.

Sim says he doesn't think the report is very useful and it's difficult to source some of the figures used in the document, which he says raises more questions than answers.

Coun. Pete Fry also criticizes the report's methodology and says he worries the report will be used to justify cuts to services, and that it's "stigmatizing" the Downtown Eastside.

To be clear the City had absolutely nothing to do with this report, nor were we provided an opportunity to review it. Presumably the intent is to galvanize austerity and cuts to services under a guise of DTES accountability - but really what it begs is accountability from VPD

— Pete Fry (@PtFry) November 9, 2022

Police Chief Adam Palmer denies the report's numbers are misleading or inflated and suggests spending is actually higher than $5 billion.

Lots of questions surrounding our leaked report on spending in the @CityofVancouver on social supports that improve social well-being & safety. Some are making comments on the rigor and methodology, yet they haven't seen the report?? Stay tuned for a press conference this a.m. pic.twitter.com/uwUdOztQtE

— Howard Chow (@DeputyChow) November 9, 2022

He is using the report to call for a centralized entity, led by a provincial minister or deputy minister, to oversee and co-ordinate services in the Downtown Eastside, where he says a "piecemeal" approach isn't working.