The Fraser Institute bills itself as a nonpartisan economic think tank, but there's something curious about the timing of its latest report.

In a bulletin issued this morning, it makes the case that Vancouver taxpayers should be alarmed about the level of public debt.

It comes a day after the NPA announced that Kirk LaPointe will run for mayor against the incumbent, Gregor Robertson.

The Fraser Institute report points out that as of 2012, the City of Vancouver was "in the red" by $268 million.

The accompanying illustration shows a sad woman standing in a downpour.

The other cartoon shows two people with their fists pumped in the air under this statement: "Other Metro Vancouver municipalities in the black +$2.0 billion."

The data backs up this assertion. And this is what people heard on radio newscasts this morning.

But there's something else that needs to be said.

First off, Vancouver's debt problem was triggered by NPA governments.

Under then-mayor Philip Owen's leadership in 2002, the city signed four legal agreements with the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation capping Vanoc's liabilities on Olympic facilities.

As a result, if these projects went over budget, the city would be responsible for any shortfalls.

This happened at the Hillcrest curling facility, the Trout Lake arena, and most notably with Vancouver's Olympic Village.

The agreements with the bid corporation were signed in secret just days before the 2002 election, which brought the Coalition of Progressive Electors to power.

COPE's mayor at the time, Larry Campbell, didn't seem too bothered by the city assuming these liabilities. He was one of the biggest boosters of the Olympics and when Vancouver was selected to host the Games, there was no turning back.

Later, an NPA government signed loan guarantees to ensure the Olympic Village would be built. When a New York–based hedge fund refused to continue forwarding money to the Olympic Village developer, the city assumed the debt.

But since the city's net debt reached an all-time high of $419 million in 2011, there's been a fairly dramatic turnaround.

The net debt fell from $269.5 million to $205.7 million between 2012 and 2013. That's a drop of 23.7 percent in a single year.

Over the same period, the City of Surrey's net financial assets dropped from $153.4 million to $69.6 million. That means the overall surplus fell by 55 percent in a single year.

So Vancouver's financial position is improving. The addition of the Olympic Village (now known as the Village at False Creek) will provide long-term tax revenue.

Surrey, on the other hand, is betting the farm that its taxpayer investments in mixed-use development projects and a brewery will yield long-term dividends for the municipality. And the free-market-oriented Fraser Institute remains silent about this.

The city-owned Surrey City Development Corporation hasn't released a 2013 annual report yet.

In 2012, it listed $39.8 million in liabilities on its books as "Due to City of Surrey", up from $24.9 million the previous year.

The SCDC provided development management services for the new Surrey City Hall, which clocked in at $97 million.

It also invested $20 million in Central City Brewers + Distillers to help finance an expanded brewery in the Bridgeview area.

In addition, the city-owned company is a partner in seven other real-estate projects, including 3 Civic Plaza. It's a mixed-used hotel-residential-retail-office project close to Surrey Central Station.

It remains to be seen whether that's going to be a success.

It's worth noting that no private-sector company was willing to go it alone on a major hotel project in the emerging downtown area.

One would expect that the Fraser Institute would howl with outrage over a municipal government sinking tens of millions into several private-sector real-estate projects.

But in this election year, Vancouver found itself in the spotlight, not Surrey.

Pipelines are a Vancouver election issue

Vision Vancouver has staked its reelection on opposition to an increase in oil-tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet.

Unlike Mayor Robertson, none of Surrey's mayoral candidates is raising this concern. 

A sharp increase in tanker traffic is inevitable if Kinder Morgan's pipeline application is approved.

Keep in mind that the Fraser Institute has a history of issuing reports touting the financial and safety benefits of building pipelines.

Meanwhile, Surrey's financial management goes under the Fraser Institute's radar in its recent report on municipal finances.

The right will maintain that only a conspiracy theorist would suggest that Big Oil has anything to do with that.

The Fraser Institute, after all, is a registered charity that's prohibited from being involved in partisan politics.

So therefore, it must be a coincidence that this report was issued the morning after LaPointe entered the mayoral race as the NPA candidate.