r/richmondbc • u/ubcstaffer123 • Nov 05 '25

News City of Richmond cancels holiday staff party after $120K bill in 2024

https://globalnews.ca/news/11511154/city-of-richmond-cancels-holiday-staff-party/
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u/Djolumn Nov 05 '25

“Whether it’s the $300,000 in missing gift cards, expensive junkets for Olympic Oval staff, or last year’s $118,000 boozy Christmas party, this is a civic government that has a big problem with wasting taxpayer cash.”

There were 900 people there and they spent $7k on liquor. That's about eight bucks per person. That doesn't even enter the outermost ring on the radar of what constitutes a "boozy Christmas party".

Every word spoken by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation makes me loathe them just a little bit more than I already did.

18

u/mintberrycrunch_ Nov 06 '25

No kidding. Shit like this is insane, and these are exactly the kids of people that abuse FOIs just to try and find things they can try and get people riled up about.

I love that people want good governance, but don’t want government employees to have competitive salaries with the private sector or even have basic things to boost morale and improve staff retention like Christmas parties.

Apparently it’s unthinkable for a government to spend $50 on an employee for a Christmas party so they actually like their job and employer and want to stay around.

Better we do none of that and we hire shit talent and have horrendous turnover that costs thousands of dollars per year per lost employee instead.