British ColumbiaThe city will now publish an annual public financial disclosure report to show — in one place — all tax-payer compensation to Ken Sim and Vancouver’s 10 councillors.Change will place all financial records in 1 place, instead of being spread out between various reportsChad Pawson · CBC News · Posted: Sep 18, 2025 12:38 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours agoVancouver Mayor Ken Sim says his successful motion seeking a yearly full tax-payer compensation public release will make the city a leader in public transparency for elected officials. (Nav Rahi/CBC)The City of Vancouver will now publish an annual public financial disclosure report to show — collectively in one place — all tax-payer compensation the mayor and councillors receive. The change is the result of a unanimous vote by city council on Wednesday on a motion from Mayor Ken Sim called Strengthening Public Trust and Transparency Through Full Disclosure of Total Council Compensation.”The City of Vancouver will help lead the way in accountability to residents when it comes to how their tax dollars are paying officials and provide them with the regular clear answers they have been asking for,” Sim said.Councillors’ expenses and their compensation are already publicly available, but reporting the monies they earn can be spread across multiple websites and reports, depending on what roles they are responsible for.Vancouver councillors earn $104,180 a year plus an annual supplement of $3,048, while the mayor earns $210,444 plus the same annual supplement.The elected officials also earn further compensation for other duties such as sitting as a director with Metro Vancouver, or serving on about a dozen different external agencies and organizations, according to Sim’s motion. Sim is a director with Metro Vancouver, but has not been attending meetings as a de facto protest over the governance issues the regional district has been grappling with.Metro Vancouver directors, of which Vancouver has seven, earn $547 for a four-hour meeting and $1,094 for a meeting that lasts beyond that. Sim’s successful motion for Vancouver elected officials also includes per diems, stipends, retainers, allowances, expense reimbursements and travel-related compensation, and any other financial or in-kind compensation received in the course of official duties.Currently, finding all the information requires citizens to look to different sources.Sim said he wanted to change that so each year taxpayers could go to one place and see a complete list. Council agreed.”I think the public has a right to know, transparently what our compensation is for our roles and responsibilities and they shouldn’t have to go to 10 different websites to find that information and go through [statement of financial information] reports from different organizations,” said Coun. Peter Meizsner.’Time on task’ amendment defeatedCoun. Pete Fry tried to amend Sim’s motion for the yearly report to include records of attendance or time on task.”I think that’s probably a useful piece to include because just the monetary value without the attendance doesn’t really paint the full picture,” he argued.Coun. Pete Fry argued that the amount of time city councillors and the mayor are working as elected officials should be reflected in the annual disclosure report, but his amendment was voted down. (Ben Nelms/CBC)The amendment did not pass with six ABC councillors and the mayor voting against it, while the three opposition councillors, including Fry, voted for it.”I don’t know how you quantify time on task,” said ABC Coun. Brian Montague. “We all know that there is way more to this job than sitting at these desks and casting a vote.””There’s a concept of activity versus productivity,” said Sim. “It may give the public a misleading view of what we are doing.”Sim described how at times he has to choose between attending a council meeting or police board meeting because they are scheduled at the same time.ABOUT THE AUTHORChad Pawson is a CBC News reporter in Vancouver. Please contact him at chad.pawson@cbc.ca.
Vancouver council votes to disclose all compensation to mayor, councillors in annual report
