Time to end the double and triple dipping of Metro Vancouver mayors and councillors: Colleen Hardwick
Vancouver, BC (Feb. 5, 2025): TEAM For A Livable Vancouver by-election candidates Colleen Hardwick and Theodore Abbott want to keep salaries of municipal politicians below that of the province’s premier, and end meeting payouts for local politicians from organizations such as Metro Vancouver, TransLink, and the Mayors Council.
Hardwick, a former Vancouver councillor, said the outrageously high multiple salaries and honorariums being paid to the region’s mayors and councillors has to end.
“No one in their right mind thinks that any elected mayor or councillor in Metro Vancouver should be paid more than the premier or a cabinet minister,” said Hardwick. “The premier makes about $227,000 for running the entire province, and he doesn’t receive a dime for attending meetings. Right now, we have local politicians collecting multiple salaries from various public bodies. As a result, they are making more than British Columbia’s premier and cabinet ministers. In fact, many are making more than private sector CEOs, all of it being paid for by the region’s taxpayers.”
Abbott said as a young Vancouver renter he cannot believe what Metro Vancouver’s municipal politicians are paying themselves, while local taxpayers are struggling.
“It’s time for the province, which completely controls municipal legislation, to step in and put a cap on salaries and end extra payments being made to local mayors and councillors for attending Metro Vancouver meetings,” explained Abbott. “At the same time, the provincial government needs to do a complete review of Metro Vancouver’s governance model and its spiralling costs. Taxpayers deserve better.”
“When most middle-income Vancouverites are making less than $70,000, they have every right to be angry at municipal mayors and councillors paying themselves four and five times that,” said Hardwick. “It’s absolutely outrageous, and it has to stop.”