Vancouver mayor can’t answer how $5M for ‘Task Force Barrage’ was approved

Critics are calling out a lack of transparency over how funding for a police task force was approved, saying the mayor made a backroom decision.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is sidestepping questions on how the budget for a $5-million task force aimed at cracking down on the Downtown Eastside was approved.

On Wednesday, CTV News asked the mayor why a funding request or proposal was not sent to the police board for approval before ‘Task Force Barrage’ was launched. Sim announced the launch of the task force in February, at a news conference with then-chief Adam Palmer.

“At the end of the day, the City of Vancouver, we do not run the police department, and it’s up to them [the VPD] to go and, you know, get their budgets approved,” he said.

“This is no different.”

Police Act

According to B.C.’s Police Act, the Vancouver Police Board is required to prepare and approve the provisional budget for the following year on an annual basis.

Any changes to this budget, per the act, must be submitted to council on or before March 1 of the year to which the provisional budget relates.

CTV News has reached out to the board numerous times requesting documentation, such as meeting minutes or agendas, that show the mayor or council proposing Task Force Barrage, or the board approving it.

The board has been unable to provide an answer.

‘I’m not in their mind’

When asked if the board learned about the task force from Sim’s announcement earlier this year, the mayor, despite being a board member himself, said he didn’t know.

“Look, I can’t comment on what people know and didn’t know,” he said.

“You’re asking me to comment on what six other individuals knew. I’m not in their mind.”

Green City Coun. Pete Fry said the lack of a paper trail is inappropriate.

“I would like to understand where the direction for Task Force Barrage came from, because clearly it didn’t come from council, clearly it didn’t come from the police board,” he said. “So, there needs to be some accountability there.”

Fry previously flagged at an April police board meeting, that a funding proposal for the task force had not gone through council, which the city’s communications team confirmed.

In a statement to CTV News, the City of Vancouver said “council has not approved funding for Task Force Barrage at this time.”

The statement added, “to date, the city has not received a formal funding request from the VPD. Until VPD submits this request and council has had the opportunity to consider it, this remains an unfunded pressure in the city’s 2025 operating budget. Any future funding would be subject to council review and approval.”

The Vancouver Police Department is expecting to be over budget by the end of the year, partly due to $5 million in overtime costs related to ongoing work for Task Force Barrage.

Those funds are to be received from the city before the end of the year, according a report from the department.

Former board member weighs in

The lack of apparent board approval has already raised questions from one former Vancouver Police Board member.

Faye Wightman served as a member on the board for about three years before resigning last year, citing political interference from the mayor’s office.

Wightman said she believes the mayor is circumventing the board.

“I think the mayor would like to think that he’s running the VPD out of his office,” she said.

Erick Laming, an assistant criminology professor at Trent University, who has researched Canadian police boards, said the oversight body should be forthcoming to the public, and that the lack of explanation around how the initiative was approved could be a violation of the Police Act.

“In general, the board is supposed to be transparent in their dealings,” he said.

“They should want to know why this discussion didn’t occur by the time that it was supposed to, according to the Police Act, and if it didn’t and there’s some backdoor things going on, then we have some violations of legislative, enforceable laws.”