Canada/Vancouver considers renaming public places to boost revenues

Vancouver mayor Ken Sim is considering allowing companies to buy the naming rights to public buildings and places to help offset the city's annual deficit.

Most people won't notice any difference," says city councillor Brian Montague, affiliated with ABC Vancouver, the mayor's party.

What we will see are potentially millions of dollars that we can spend on our massive infrastructure deficit [...] without constantly dipping into taxpayers' pockets," he says.

This deficit amounts to $500 million, says the mayor of Vancouver.

A September report by the city's director of finance indicates that the revenues associated with such an initiative could generate $500,000 in 2024, a proportion of 0.1% of the deficit.

Names are important

While the idea is not new, Brent Toderian, former Chief Planner for the City of Vancouver, questions its relevance to public places: Names are important. Names that keep coming back commercialize our public life, our public space, and distance us from our city's history.

This affects reconciliation, the creation of First Nations identity in neighbourhoods and the commemoration of identity in our cities.

A quote from Brent Toderian, former Chief Planner for the City of Vancouver

City Councillor Brian Montague assures us that businesses will be carefully selected to fit in with Vancouver.

Brent Toderian has no doubt that the City will rule out dubious company names. Rather, it's the blandness of company names that have nothing to do with the creation of a park that worries him.

Provisional agreements

Naming rights are contractual. Companies offer to write a check for a certain period of time. [Names] can change; it depends on the length of the agreement," says Brent Toderian.

The urban planner gives the example of the Mobi bike-sharing system, whose colors recently changed from blue to red when Shaw, the company that sponsored the city's initiative, was bought by Rogers.

There's a temporality to all this that goes against the concept of anchoring our identity; reinforcing our identity as a city; our history; the good and the bad," argues Brent Toderian.

Worrying financial management

The sale of naming rights is among the recommendations of the mayor's budget task force. Other recommendations include the creation of a finance committee, resource sharing and absenteeism management, among others.

By offering opportunities to businesses through naming rights, the government itself is showing that it doesn't have strong financial capabilities," says Ross Hickey, associate professor of public finance and political economy at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

As a resident, I'd be a little concerned about what happens if the City isn't able to raise the necessary funds through traditional means.

A quote from Ross Hickey, Associate Professor of Public Finance and Political Economy at UBC

The City of Vancouver has not yet indicated which public spaces would be eligible for naming rights. The City plans to begin conversations with interested parties as early as the fall of 2024.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca/