Vancouver’s new mayor Ken Sim is commenting on the confidential report commissioned by the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) that suggests more than $5 billion is being spent every year on the city’s social safety net, despite worsening results.
Sim told Global News Tuesday that he is considering hiring a “chief medical health professional” for the city to oversee the crisis on the Downtown Eastside.
“So when you look at the report, I think it prompts great questions, and it talks about transparency and accountability and collaboration. And so I think what we can all agree to, is the situation has gotten worse than what we’re currently doing, you know, despite the fact that there are a lot of groups that are doing incredible things right now and that are effective,” Sim said.
“We can do better. And so as mayor of Vancouver, what I intend to do – and we’ve already started this process – is we’ve reached out to the Prime Minister’s office and the Premier-designate’s office. And we’ve spoken with the ministers, we’ve spoken with all our regional partners, the mayors throughout the region and some councillors. And what we’d like to do is, you know, look at this problem, this challenge, holistically.”
Global News obtained an executive summary of the “social impact audit” produced by Alberta-based tech company HelpSeeker, which describes itself as a startup “focused on accelerating the digital transformation of the social safety net to maximize its equitable outcomes.”
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Neither the summary nor the full 100-plus page report, which Global News has not reviewed, have been released publicly.
According to the summary, $5.1 billion was spent on Vancouver’s “social safety net” in 2020, equating to about $7,200 per Vancouver resident or $14 million per day. The executive summary does not specifically define what is being included as a part of the city’s social safety net.
There have been questions about the $5 billion figure considering HelpSeeker included around $2 billion of direct federal transfers that go to all residents of Vancouver. This includes child tax benefits, Old Age Security, Employment Insurance and Canada Pension Plan.
The organization also used the budgets of non-profits and charities providing services to the entire province, and not just those delivering service to the Downtown Eastside.
“We very much question the assumptions made to generate the figure,” a statement from Attorney General’s ministry reads.
“We all recognize the challenges people are facing and opportunities to strengthen and coordinate how services are delivered, and that’s best accomplished by working together and having informed discussions with partners.”
Sim, who did review the full report, also said some of the numbers do not make sense to him.
“At the end of the day, it brought up more questions than answers,” he said. “There are a lot of numbers that still aren’t sourced. So while we have a general view of what’s going on, we still need to dig a lot deeper to fully understand what’s going on and to get a more complete picture of where the resources are being allocated.”
Sim said one of the numbers that stood out to him is the dedication of $140 million from the City of Vancouver.
“They do reference that Fire and Rescue adds to that number or is part of that number, but they don’t reference how much of that number from Fire and Rescue is part of that number. So, these are the questions that we really need to ask because before we can make any definitive comments as to the effectiveness of what’s going on at the City of Vancouver, we really need to understand where they’re getting their numbers from.”
The Vancouver Police Department, along with HelpSeeker Technologies, are presenting the findings of this report at a press conference on Wednesday at 11 a.m.
– with files from Global News’ Rumina Day and Simon Little
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