Public safety was a central theme of the 2022 campaign. The city's multi-year capital budget shows exactly what big-ticket money is going to police and fire services — stations, vehicles, equipment.
On track
Capital investment in public safety — police and fire facilities, vehicles and equipment — has grown to about $30M per year from $20M in the pre-2023 budgets.
1The story
What we're trackingImprove public safety for everyone in Vancouver.— ABC Vancouver's 2022 campaign platform
In plain terms: the city's capital budget sets aside money for big public-safety projects — new fire halls, police vehicles, station renovations. Before Mayor Sim took office, that averaged about $20 million a year; since then it's averaged about $30 million a year. In 2025, the biggest items were downtown south fire hall (fh#8) - renewal & expansion ($13M), grandview woodland fire hall (fh#9) renewal ($10M).
Green bars are the years after Mayor Sim took office (late 2022).
Sim took office Nov 2022 — compare green years to blue ones.
Biggest items in 2025
Largest public-safety capital projects in the most recent budget.
Downtown South fire hall (FH#8) - renewal & expansion$13M
Grandview Woodland fire hall (FH#9) renewal$10M
2019-2022 Replacement of Vehicles & Equipment - Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services$6M
2023-2026 Replacement of Vehicles & Equipment - Vancouver Police Department (VPD)$5M
3The fine print
How we calculated this
We pulled the city's Multi-Year Capital Budget (2021–2026) and summed the 'Public Safety' service category each budget year — this covers Vancouver Police Department and Fire & Rescue Services capital projects (stations, vehicles, equipment). We compare the average annual amount before Mayor Sim's election in late 2022 against the years after. These are budgeted amounts, not final actuals.
City of Vancouver open data — Multi-Year Capital Project Budget (2021–2026) · as of 2026-10-21 · Vancouver Promise Tracker — an independent look at whether local leaders deliver on their word.