Qipu
Vancouver · Sources

Where every figure comes from

The Vancouver pages are built from what the City publishes — its open-data portal and its annual Statements of Financial Information — and from national LiDAR for the map. Below: every source, the checks run on them, what those checks found, and the privacy rules.

The City’s open-data portal

36 datasets, read through the portal's API; the date is the City's own last update.

DatasetUpdated by the CityRead by QipuRecords
2021 new Multi-Year Capital Budget requests and 2021 Capital Expenditure BudgetFebruary 3, 2021September 13, 2026496
2022 new Multi-Year Capital Budget requests and 2022 Capital Expenditure BudgetJune 11, 2024September 13, 2026548
2023 Multi-Year Capital Project Budget requests and Capital Expenditure BudgetFebruary 22, 2023September 13, 2026777
2023-2026 Capital Plan and 2026 Capital Budget with proposed four-year Capital Plan allocationsApril 14, 2026September 13, 2026395
2024 Multi-Year Capital Project Budget requests and Capital Expenditure BudgetApril 17, 2024September 13, 2026592
2025 Multi-Year Capital Project Budget requests and Capital Expenditure BudgetDecember 12, 2024September 13, 2026740
2026 Multi-Year Capital Project Budget requests and Capital Expenditure BudgetApril 14, 2026September 13, 2026630
Awarded contractsJuly 23, 2026September 13, 20266,414
BikewaysSeptember 7, 2026September 13, 20263,733
Block outlinesMay 23, 2026September 13, 20264,633
Building Footprints 2015June 9, 2022September 13, 2026154,124
Building footprints 2009May 7, 2019September 13, 2026124,181
City-owned propertiesSeptember 7, 2026September 13, 20264,455
Community centresNovember 19, 2020September 13, 202627
Council voting recordsMay 8, 2026September 13, 202680,722
Cultural SpacesJune 9, 2022September 13, 20261,942
Employee remuneration and expenses (earning over $75,000)April 16, 2026September 13, 202649,742
Fire hallsMay 23, 2026September 13, 202620
Heritage sitesMarch 23, 2023September 13, 20262,495
Homeless shelter locationsSeptember 7, 2026September 13, 202617
Issued building permitsSeptember 12, 2026September 13, 202651,999
LanesJuly 27, 2026September 13, 20267,856
LibrariesNovember 19, 2020September 13, 202622
Local area boundaryJune 24, 2023September 13, 202622
Non-market housingSeptember 1, 2026September 13, 2026641
ParksSeptember 22, 2025September 13, 2026218
Parks - polygon representationAugust 31, 2026September 13, 2026254
Property addressesSeptember 7, 2026September 13, 202699,744
Property parcel polygonsSeptember 7, 2026September 13, 202699,701
Property tax reportSeptember 7, 2026September 13, 20261,553,373
Public streetsJuly 27, 2026September 13, 202617,072
Public treesJune 22, 2026September 13, 2026185,845
RailwaysNovember 19, 2020September 13, 2026936
Right-of-way widthsAugust 24, 2026September 13, 202626,858
Shoreline 2002November 19, 2020September 13, 20262
Water distribution mainsSeptember 7, 2026September 13, 202667,496

Open Government Licence - Vancouver

Statements of Financial Information

The budget, debt and payments pages read the City's annual Statements. vancouver.ca refuses scripted requests, so each PDF is read from its Internet Archive capture — the date is the capture's — and its fingerprint is kept so the same bytes can be read again.

Beyond the City

What the map measures from national data.

Checks

Each is a test in the pipeline (pipeline/tests/ca), run with every build of the data.

  • Budget and debt: every section of the five-year review adds up to the total printed under it, year by year, within the table's own rounding.
  • Revenue minus expenses equals the annual surplus the City printed, every year.
  • Expenses by object and expenses by function, two tables of the same money, have the same total every year.
  • The debt table's own arithmetic holds: debenture debt less internally held debt is external debt; less the sinking fund, net debt.
  • Payments: each supplier and grant schedule's lines add up to the total the City printed, within $50, or the difference is listed below with what was measured.
  • Investments: the capital budget and plan totals survive from the published files to the page, to the dollar.
  • Contracts: award totals at competition level equal those at response level; an amount printed beside several winners of one competition counts once.
  • Housing: the register's two unit counts (by clientele, by design) are both kept, and the buildings where they disagree are counted on the page.
  • Privacy: no withheld name reaches the payee list, and no payroll figure covers fewer than 10 people where it would be one person's pay.

Misprints found in the City’s reports

  • Statement of Financial Information 2023: The 2023 five-year table prints 2022 = $585,399k, 2021 = $354,977k: the 2021 and 2020 figures one column to the right. The 2023 statement's own discussion says capital additions were $455.0 million in 2022, and the 2021 and 2022 statements say $585.4 million in 2021 and $455.0 million in 2022.
  • Statement of Financial Information 2024: Same shifted row as the 2023 report (2022 = $585,399k); the 2022 statement says $455.0 million in 2022.
  • Statement of Financial Information 2025: Same shifted row as the 2023 report (2022 = $585,399k, 2021 = $354,977k); the 2021 and 2022 statements say $585.4 million in 2021 and $455.0 million in 2022.

Schedules whose lines do not reproduce the printed total

  • 2013 · Other: Every line on the page was read; they add up to $10,000 less than the total the City printed under them.
  • 2016 · Business Improvement Associations: The schedule prints no total for this category.
  • 2016 · Other: The schedule prints no total for this category.
  • 2018 · Suppliers over $25,000: Every amount on the schedule's pages was read and none is left over; they add up to $648,381 less than the total the City printed.
  • 2021 · Suppliers over $25,000: Aramark Canada Ltd's amount is printed with its leading digits cut off (',541,678' in the PDF) and cannot be read; the other lines add up to $1,416,973 less than the printed total.
  • 2022 · Suppliers over $25,000: Every amount on the schedule's pages was read and none is left over; they add up to $28,769 more than the total the City printed.

Privacy

The remuneration schedule names every employee paid over $75,000. The payroll page publishes counts and totals by year, department, role and pay band only: medians and band totals are withheld for groups under 10 people, and roles held by fewer than 3 people are summed.A name is published only when it carries an organisation marker (a legal form, a kind of body, a trade word). A name without one could be a person's: its amount is counted in every total, its name is not shown. "In Trust" and "Notary Public" are not markers: a trust account is published only when its holder's own name carries one.No page on this site is about a person: council decisions are shown by outcome and tally, payees that could be people are not named, employees are counted.