Bob Mackin
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is proposing that city hall annually publish a sunshine list showing itemized payments to city council members who sit on municipal, regional, provincial or federal boards.
Sim’s motion, “Strengthening Public Trust and Transparency Through Full Disclosure of Total Council Compensation,” goes to council’s Policy and Strategic Priorities committee on Sept. 17.
But Sim’s ABC party-ruled city hall is trying to keep secret the amounts paid to the department planning for the FIFA World Cup 26.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim (left), NDP B.C. sport minister Lana Popham and Liberal sport minister Carla Qualtrough (BC Gov)
In July, theBreaker.news asked the freedom of information office for a list of individual payments — for the two most-recent pay periods — to employees and contractors in the FWC26 Secretariat.
City hall demanded a $135 payment.
Hefty bill
It claimed it would take seven-and-a-half hours to locate, retrieve, produce and prepare the records. The first three hours are free, under the law, so the city sent an invoice seeking payment for four-and-a-half hours.
theBreaker.news asked for the fee to be rescinded due to self-evident public interest, but nobody at the FOI office responded.
By comparison
In 2023, the NDP government did not charge any additional fee for monthly payroll reports showing names of all Office of the Premier personnel and contractors, their titles and the gross amounts paid.
Why it matters
In July, theBreaker.news reported that Jessie Adcock, the head of the city’s World Cup department, invoiced city taxpayers $469,804 through her Adcock Capital and Advisory Services company in 2024.
Adcock’s pay in 2024 was nearly $100,000 more than city manager Paul Mochrie.
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