{"id":1313,"date":"2026-07-22T15:17:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tbpanews.com\/vancouver-severance-packages\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T15:17:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:17:56","slug":"vancouver-severance-packages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tbpanews.com\/fr\/vancouver-severance-packages\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Spent $6 Million on Severance Packages in 2024 \u2014 More Than All Previous Years Combined"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vancouver’s City Hall paid out $6 million in severance<\/strong> to departing non-unionized employees in 2024. That figure, obtained through a freedom of information request filed by Postmedia, exceeds the combined total of all previous years on record \u2014 and city officials had declined to release it voluntarily.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The number did not emerge on its own. Under British Columbia law, every municipality must publicly report the number<\/em> of severance agreements it signs each year in its annual statement of financial information, but cities are not required to disclose the total dollar value of those agreements. Vancouver and other municipalities had chosen to release that figure in past years \u2014 without requiring a formal request \u2014 but this year the city withheld it. A journalist’s FOI request forced its disclosure.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The scale of the payouts reflects a dramatic shift in how Vancouver has managed its workforce under the ABC Vancouver<\/strong> party, which has held a majority on council since the 2022 election. ABC directed city staff last year to find $120 million in cost reductions and additional revenues for 2026, in pursuit of what Mayor Ken Sim<\/strong> repeatedly branded a “zero means zero” budget \u2014 meaning a zero per cent property tax increase for the current year. Achieving that target meant cutting roughly 400 full-time positions.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Vancouver’s 2024 statement of financial information, released in April, showed the city signed 79 severance agreements<\/strong> with non-union workers last year. That matches the combined total of the previous seven years and is nearly nine times the annual average over the 22 years for which records are available on the city’s website. Individual agreements ranged from the equivalent of one month’s gross salary to two full years of compensation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

What makes the spending pattern harder to defend politically is the trajectory that preceded it. Vancouver’s municipal workforce grew from 8,828 full-time-equivalent positions in 2022<\/strong> to an estimated 9,666 in 2024<\/strong> \u2014 a jump of nearly 10 per cent \u2014 during the first three years of ABC’s mandate, accompanied by property tax increases. Hiring expanded not only in the police and fire departments, where ABC had made explicit campaign promises, but across a wide range of city services.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The city then reversed course sharply, cutting through a combination of voluntary buyouts and involuntary layoffs. Critics argue the whiplash approach \u2014 hiring aggressively, then cutting quickly \u2014 is precisely what drove the severance bill so high. Mayor Sim’s office did not dispute the $6 million figure, and stated that “organizational changes can involve one-time costs” made with the goal of reducing long-term operating expenses and improving service delivery. The mayor’s office also said it was not involved in the decision to withhold the dollar figure from public disclosure.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Opposition voices on council and in the mayoral race have been sharply critical. Green Councillor Pete Fry<\/strong>, who is running against Sim for mayor in this October’s election, called the situation the predictable result of a “shoot-from-the-hip-while-blindfolded approach,” and said the cuts have reduced services \u2014 including eliminating municipal workers focused on sex worker safety \u2014 while fees for parking, permits, and licences have risen. Councillor Rebecca Bligh<\/strong>, the Vote Vancouver mayoral candidate, described the $6 million as “an extraordinary amount of taxpayer money” and argued the city should be proactively disclosing significant expenditures rather than waiting for FOI requests to surface them. COPE’s mayoral candidate Stephanie Allen<\/strong> questioned whether the departures represented genuine restructuring or a replacement of experienced public servants with politically aligned staff. Kareem Allam<\/strong>, a former ABC campaign manager now running under the new Vancouver Liberals banner, pointed to a 2022 campaign promise \u2014 never fulfilled \u2014 to release a detailed line-item budget in the name of financial transparency.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Cuts have continued into 2025. The city declined to say how many workers have been laid off so far this year, stating that information will appear in next year’s financial report. In just the past two months, Vancouver has parted ways with its city clerk, deputy city clerk, chief building official, and chief procurement officer \u2014 a cluster of senior departures that signals the restructuring is far from over as the October election approaches.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vancouver’s City Hall paid out $6 million in severance to departing non-unionized employees in 2024. That figure, obtained through a freedom of information request filed by Postmedia, exceeds the combined total of all previous years on record \u2014 and city officials had declined to release it voluntarily. The number did not emerge on its own. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nVancouver's $6M Severance Spending Raises Budget Questions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vancouver spent $6 million on severance packages in 2024, exceeding all previous years combined. 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